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The Case for Peace, by Alan Dershowitz

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The Wrath

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Don't let the title fool you. This is not some hippie propaganda book. It is Dershowitz exposing what he believes are the major barriers to peace in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This book is essentially just extra chapters of his previous book The Case for Israel. The only difference is that there is a chapter that attempts to discredit far-right Israelis, such as the Kach terrorist group.

Other than that, it is a very pro-Israeli book and it is clear that he places the vast majority of the blame on the Palestinian leadership as well as on radical left-wing academics and media elite.

Dershowitz argues for the two-state solution. I think that, ultimately, he is right in that it is the only thing that will ever work. However, he doesn't do a very good job at talking about its drawbacks. He mentions that the Palestinian state would likely become a launchpad for terror, but doesn't give any suggestions as to how to ensure that it doesn't. One thing is clear, however: he proposes that the Palestinians be given legitimacy only as a reward for making peace with Israel, rather than giving them a state before peace is made.

His biggest error is that he supported the evacuation of Gaza and the prospective evacuation of the West Bank. When it comes to removing the military presence from the territories, I don't know enough about the situation or foreign relations to know whether or not that was a good idea. I suspect that it was a bad idea. But what I am certain of, is that he is wrong in his support for the forcible removal of Jewish settlers. If they chose to stay in Gaza, knowing that the military presence was gone, then that is their risk to take and I see no reason to support government-mandated removal of people who are willing to take the risk, in order to remain in their homes. His support for withdrawal also doesn't jive very well with his contention that legitimacy should come only after peace is already made.

The drawbacks really don't take up too much of the book, however. Most of the book is dedicated to exposing the anti-Israel bias of the media and various intellectuals. Not as good as The Case for Israel, but still worth a weekend read.

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I too did not like this book nearly as much as I have enjoyed The Case for Israel. In particular, I thought Alan Dershowitz spent too much time discrediting his critics (i.e. Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, and the like) and not enough time discussing the conflict itself. While the author probably needs to refute the attacks of his critics for the sake of maintaining intellectual legitimacy and academic dignity, reading such refutations is not the reason why I selected the book.

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He actually devoted a rather small part to repelling their attacks against him. Most of that chapter, as I recall, was about the method of attack that Chomsky and his cronies use against anyone they perceive as pro-Israel.

If I remember correctly, that was the second longest chapter in the book, which made it about 10% of the material excluding the blurbs present in other chapters. Perhaps this is not so bad. For me personally, I have read enough material on the baseless personal attacks of the aforementioned academics, so I was not as interested in reading it again. In other words, I wanted to read The Case for Peace and not The Case for Alan Dershowitz. Anyway, perhaps the content on this regard was not that much and it would be useful for the readers presently unfamiliar with the accusations leveled against the author.

Overall, I would say that this is a good book although I found The Case for Israel to be better.

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