Alan Dershowitz wrote an article expressing his opposition
to Representative Keith Ellison running to be chair of the Democratic National
Committee (DNC.) As far as I am concerned, Mr. Ellison is big enough and strong
enough to defend himself; I am not defending him.
It is just that I have kept an eye on this guy, Dershowitz,
for something like half a century, and every time I hear that he wrote
something, bells ring in my head alerting me to the likelihood that logical
acrobatics of the weird kind must have been performed. So I read what he wrote
and be entertained or be disappointed.
This time, Dershowitz wrote: “Keith Ellison, the Wrong Man
at the Wrong Time,” an article that was published on December 3, 2016 in
Algemeiner, a Jewish website where fanatic pro-Jewish writings that would have
a hard time finding a home elsewhere, get published.
Dershowitz makes two main points. First, he says that
Ellison fits the trend of parties drifting to one extreme or the other of the
spectrum, but then advises that Ellison be rejected by members of the
Democratic Party because he is not centrist enough. Go figure. Second,
Dershowitz says that Ellison is bad for the Party because he wants to see a
policy of even handedness in the Middle East rather than the current blind tilt
toward Israel .
Try to figure this one out.
Realizing that Keith Ellison is enjoying a tailwind
generated by Democratic leaders, many of whom are Jewish, Dershowitz tailored
his argument to impress them in the hope that they will drop their support for
Ellison, thus see his candidacy collapse before it comes to a vote.
Here is what Dershowitz saw: “Keith Ellison is, by all
accounts, a decent guy well-liked by his congressional colleagues.” And here is
the approach he took to counter that: “But it is hard to imagine a worse
candidate to take over the DNC at this time. Ellison represents the Left-wing
of the Party, when the party – if it is to win again – must move to the
center”.
To discredit Ellison for his views on the Middle
East , Dershowitz chose the cowardly approach of pronouncing him
guilty by association because he once had something to do with Louis Farrakhan.
This was the time when the latter was organizing the famed Million Man March,
an association that lasted a year and a half. The two men went their separate
ways after that, never to associate again.
Now, bear in mind that Farrakhan never committed a crime,
was never tried for one, and was never accused of one. He is an American that
happens to be Muslim. He is a leader in his community with a large following,
exercising his first amendment right to speak his mind in the open for all to
see, and hear what he has to say.
Contrast this with Alan Dershowitz's association with one
named O.J. Simpson. This one was accused of committing a horrible crime and had
a dream-team of lawyers defending him. Dershowitz used to advise the team, also
defended Simpson in the media to such an extent that he was told by the lawyers
to shut up because he was becoming too much of a public embarrassment. Simpson
is now in jail, and has been for a number of years, having committed another
crime that resulted in his conviction.
Another cowardly approach taken by Alan Dershowitz is that
he used the religious argument to impress the Jews and the Evangelicals. He
began with this: “Ellison's selection wouldn't help among Jewish or pro-Israel Christian
voters.” He went on to say that “Farrakhan has exhibited a penchant for lacing
his sermons with antisemitic hate speech.” But what has that got to do with
Keith Ellison? Nothing really. But then again, this is how the cowardly
operate.
Is that it, or is there more? In fact, there is more. This
time, the argument has to do with human rights. Alan Dershowitz spent a great
deal of time and effort trying to purge the universities in America and England of professors who would not
toe the Zionist line. All he managed to accomplish was deny tenure to one
Jewish professor in America .
As to his effort in England ,
it was the Jews of that country who told Dershowitz he is such a public
embarrassment to them; they don't want to see his face again on their campuses.
Moreover, in 2008 Dershowitz convinced the DNC to “diss”
President Jimmy Carter, having invited him to speak at the convention of that
year. What was Carter's crime? He refused to toe the Zionist line. Dershowitz
later went on a tour beating his breast a triumphant beat in the manner of
jungle apes.
As to his views on the Palestinians, Dershowitz said that Israel has the
right to inflict on them anything and everything that anyone may have inflicted
on someone in the past. He hasn't apologized yet.
This is the guy who now insists that Ellison's bid be
rejected because he once associated with Farrakhan who once refused “to criticize
Iran 's
human rights violations”.