Alan Dershowitz : Plague upon society

Alan Dershowitz in a recent Jerusalem Post article argues that Israel has the right to defend itself under UN Law. He states:

Article 51 of the United Nations Charter guarantees its members “the inherent right to…individual self defense” against “an armed attack.” In January 2006, Hamas was elected to govern the Palestinian Authority. After Israel ended its occupation of Gaza and removed all of its settlers, Hamas threw the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza and assumed de facto as well as de jure control over the entire Gaza Strip.

Notice that he fails to mention the role of the United States in this takeover of Gaza by Hamas, an action that would have never happened if the US had obeyed the UN Charter.

He goes on to say :

At first these rockets were Kassams with a relatively short range. Now they include Katyushas, which can reach Israel’s large cities, including Ashkelon, with its population of 120,000 civilians. Hamas has officially declared that its policy is to develop or smuggle even longer range missiles capable of reaching Israel’s largest city Tel Aviv and its lifeblood, Ben Gurion Airport. It has promised to keep aiming its missiles at civilian targets until the Jewish state is finally destroyed.

If this is not an “armed attack” under Article 51, then I don’t know what is. The only argument against it being an armed attack is that rocketing civilian population centers, as Hamas is doing, is a war-crime. International law prohibits, even during a declared war, the deliberate targeting of civilians or the bombing of areas of civilian population centers with absolutely no military significance.

In the last Israeli incursion 120 people were killed, over half were civilians. In some cases civilians were killed in areas where there was no militant action. Israel also shut off utilities to Gaza for a period of two weeks and has only recently lifted restrictions to allow medicine and electricity. Both the killings of civilians and the collective punishment of 1.5 millions residents are war crimes. Where is Mr. Dershowitz on these actions?

The military wing of Hamas is in fact a terrorist organization, as the Untied States and the European Community have recognized. But since Hamas is in political and military control of the liberated Gaza Strip, the military wing of Hamas is also the official army of that government, as Hamas itself has proclaimed.

What then are Israel’s rights under international law, under the law of war, under historical precedents and under various treaties and human rights concepts? What have, and what would, other nations whose cities and towns were attacked by enemy rockets do? Israel certainly has the right to counterattack its enemy, destroy its capacity to fire rockets and engage in “belligerent reprisal.”

The same could have been said of the Irgun, Stern and Haganah, three groups which were terrorist entities during the British Mandate but were seen by their constituents as valid political entities. After events like the King David Hotel Bombing and the Massacre at Deir Yassin these terrorist groups became the Israeli government and streets were named after them. Ben Gurion, a war criminal, has an airport (as Alan pointed out) named after him.

For a Harvard Graduate Mr. Dershowitz really doesn’t do much research into his articles (or books for that matter). How can he blame one side of a conflict for the same crimes which founded and continue to support the nation he defends so strongly (even more strongly than his country of citizenship). Moreover why is it acceptable for Israel to commit war crimes?

Mr. Dershowitz does do one thing to silence his critics, not even half way through the article he says :

But war-crimes may also constitute an armed attack: Hitler’s invasion of Poland was both, as the Nuremberg Tribunal determined. If anything, an armed attack that is also a war crime justifies the right of self-defense even more than a mere armed attack.

This is a prime example of Godwins Law . The law basically states that, when you have no argument and all hope is lost, bring up Hitler and the like and it will automatically silence your opposition. Similarly in America you say “9/11″ to avoid having to have an intelligent debate about something.

Over the years it has become obvious of Alan’s dementia, he once held a debate with a chair in which he called his fellow professors at Harvard and MIT “anti-semitic bigots” who “knew nothing of the Middle East.”  Thats one class act.