Rating: 
Summary: To Uri Strauss :
Review: I just wanted to say that this book is extremely well written and organized. Dr. Dershowitz gives many facts and also many quotations from other credible news sources (NY Times). Mr. Chomsky's book, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project" proves that he is an anti-American and Anti-Semitic who is blinded by his utter hatred of the US and Israel.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, Solid Book and Argument
Review: A good book on the history and morality of the ongoing struggle in the Middle East. Dr. Dersowitz goes over information on the long history of anti-Semitic attacks in Palestine. He explains how the Grand Mufti, who ruled over Palestine during British rule, was an extreme anti-Semitic and was even a Nazis collaborator. He discusses the moral implications of Israel's actions and some of the reasons for the many waves of Palestinian suicide bombers. I have looked up this information from other sources and have substantiated a great deal of it. It is a good read for people who would like to hear the Israel point of view on the Mid East conflict, rather than the Palestinian. I have recommended it to many friends as a must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Unworthy
Review: This is a very disapointing even sloppy book. One can only assume Mr Dershowitz wrote in the intervals in between appearing in court.As soon as you open the initial pages you are confronted with "maps" of ancient Israel, which since no one knows the border of any state 2500 years ago immediately alerts you to the propaganda nature of this book. His use of the "unpopulated state" argument is also a let down as this has been comprehensively refuted many times, not the least by Israeli scholars. This calls into question the extent of his reading. The hysterical tone also doesn't help as is his refusal to admit that some of his opponents have valid views. Presumably he didn't have an editor, or at least ignored the one he did have. There is a case to be made for Israel, but crude propaganda like this only damages it. Convincing the convinced is no achievement.
Rating: 
Summary: "The Case For Israel" doesn't make good on its promise
Review: Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel" is a failed attempt to respond to
thirty two criticisms of Israel. I've read through the first third of the
book, plus a few other chapters, and I've found many serious problems
in what I've read. I'll briefly discuss three of these problems, drawing
on the first few chapters of the book for illustration. The first problem, found in throughout the parts I've read, is the fact
that Dershowitz doesn't mention, let alone respond to, his opposition's
arguments. He presents the opposition's claim in the form of a quote from
a critic of Israel, taken out of context, and responds to it without
considering any argument that the author of the quote might have used to
back up the claim. For example, take the charge that Israel is a colonial state. The charge
is addressed in a couple of chapters, those titled "Is Israel a Colonial,
Imperialist State?" (Chapter 1), and "Was the Zionist Movement a Plot to
Colonize All of Palestine?" (Chapter 3). Now, there's an excellent book by
Edward Said, "The Question of Palestine", which makes the argument that
the Zionist movement was colonial. Another great book, Noam Chomsky's "The
Fateful Triangle", discusses the special relationship between the United
States and Israel in terms that could fairly be called an analysis of
imperialism. Nowhere in these chapters are the arguments of Said or
Chomsky, or anyone else who argues that Israel or Zionism is colonial,
discussed. Dershowitz doesn't mention Theodor Herzl's explicitly
colonialist book Der Judenstaat, considered by Zionists and anti-Zionists
alike to be the founding document of the Zionist movement, and the most
important one. There are several other important individuals,
organizations and historical events that Dershowitz avoids but that anyone
honestly addressing the issue would have to discuss, like Zev
Jabotinsky, the alliances between Zionism/Israel and imperialist powers like Britain and the United States, and the revealingly named Jewish
Colonization Society. None of these are mentioned, let alone engaged with
in any serious way. Ignoring your interlocutor's key arguments and
concepts is not a good way to move dialogue forward and get closer to the
truth. More pointedly, you can't claim to have refuted a claim without
examining arguments in favor of the claim. A second kind of problem is Dershowitz's failure, in some cases, to even
dispute the accusation that he's supposedly responding to. Take the
chapter titled "Have the Jews Exploited the Holocaust?" (Chapter 7).
Dershowitz never disputes that Jews have exploited the holocaust. Instead,
he spends the whole chapter writing about Haj Amin al-Husseini's
alliance with the Nazis, and the
historical treatment of Jews in Muslim countries. These are important
issues, but completely
irrelevant to the claim at issue. As with
the chapters discussed in the last paragraph, Dershowitz doesn't mention
the arguments presented in favor of the claim, like those in Norman
Finkelstein's book "The Holocaust Industry". The last type of problem I'll mention is that in some chapters, Dershowitz
does discuss the accusation by Israel's critics, and concedes that they're
true. Take, for example, the chapter entitled "Did European Jews Displace
Palestinians?" To begin with, Dershowitz ignores (in this chapter)
Israel's mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967, limiting himself
to the period before the 1947-1949 war. But even then, he concedes that
the claim is true, citing Benny Morris: "only 'several thousand'
[Palestinian] families were displaced following land sales to Jews between
the 1880s and the late 1930s". This figure apparently refers to
displacements from territory which, Dershowitz reports, had between
100,000 and 150,000 inhabitants in 1880, when the displacement started.
So not only did the displacement happen, but it affected a sizeable fraction
of the Palestinian population. The "myth" that is supposedly refuted is in
fact confirmed. Conclusion: I've presented here three sorts of problems that undermine "The Case for
Israel": the author's refusal to consider arguments contrary to his
viewpoint, his failure in some cases to address the criticisms that he's
supposed to be addressing, and his concession in some cases that the
accusations are true. The examples that I've mentioned are a small sample
of the many serious problems with the book. In the end, its certainly
false that Dershowitz "conclusively refutes thirty-two separate slurs,
slanders and misrepresentations that have been hurled at Israel". Nor will
the book persuade thoughtful people to support Israel. At various points in the book, Dershowitz derides and dismisses
individuals far more thoughtful than himself, especially Edward Said and
Noam Chomsky. I advise readers and would-be readers of "The Case for
Israel" to look at the excellent writings of these two authors, who in the
end make a far stronger case for Jewish rights and autonomy than
Dershowitz does.
Rating:
Summary: A Lawyerly Argument in Support of Israel
Review: The case for Israel has been made in many different forums and in many different ways. It is a little pathetic that this tiny country floating in a sea of Arab hatred needs to continue to justify its existence and necessary actins to preserve the safety of its people but such is life. This new book by Alan Dershowitz doesn't really add anything new to the debate but it is valuable nonetheless because if its style. What Dershowitz has written is, essentially, a legal brief in support of Israel. Dershowitz divides the book into a series of anti-Israel statements, which her enemies state as fact. He gives the enemies' side of the case and then proceeds to demolish it in lawyerly fashion by using fact and evidence. As a well known appellate lawyer, Dershowitz has an excellent grasp on the use of evidence. He understands that a statement in support of one of his points in support of Israel will have greater strength if it comes from an Arab source rather than an Israeli source. So whenever possible he uses Israel's opponents as source material as he does, for example, in his demolition of myths regarding Israel's wars of survival. Another technique the top lawyer will use is to acknowledge evidence that works against his case but to minimize its impact. Dershowitz never argues that Israel is perfect but he persuasively demonstrates that Israel is held to an unfair double standard whereby every wrong action is used to demonize her while much worse actions and indeed pure evil is ignored or excused when undertaken by the rest of the world. Ultimately, Dershowitz persuasively proves his case; Israel is a free society in the Western model, with essentially good motives no worse than and usually a good deal better than the majority of countries on earth. The very fact that the United Nations seems singularly devoted to condemning every wrong committed by the Jewish state while ignoring the atrocities committed by most of its members can be nothing more than anti-semitism pure and simple. This book is nothing original but it is worth reading. It will persuade no one whose mind is made up that Israel is the epitome of evil but it will lend support to Israel's supporters.
Rating:
Summary: Case Made
Review: Prof. Dershowitz does a wonderful job exposing the double standard used against Israel on the international scene. The sheer volume of the proof he offers is so overwhelming that one wonders how any one could miss it. In particular, he shows how the international press and the UN often times condemn Israel for practices that are ignored elsewhere. For example, he goes to great lengths to demonstrate how Israel, the only nation in the Middle East where Arab citizens can vote in free and fair elections and speak freely is routinely condemned, everyone ignores the horrendous human rights of the other Middle East nations. Why is only Israel attacked? China, North Korea, Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan get no attention in the UN who reserve their condemnation exclusively for the Jewish state. Dershowitz's point is simple; the world should function under a single set of rules. Instead, Israel is continually the sole target of world condemnation. Shockingly, countries like Syria and Libya are placed in important international positions like chairing international human rights convention and the Security Council from which they condemn Israel. At the same time, Israel remains the only country in the world not allowed to sit on the Security Council. Prof. Dershowitz's book's goal is not to prove Israel perfectly innocent. Indeed, the many negative reviewers who make this claim have clearly not read the book and are simply parroting something they heard or read elsewhere. With his skill as a courtroom lawyer he makes his case and makes it convincingly for anyone inclined to take the time read it.
Rating:
Summary: Good premise, but the story doesn't hold up
Review: This story could have been much better if the writer had read it when he was done writing it. Then he might have seen where many of the dots could not be connected. Much of what's written is contradictory and doesn't make much sense. For example, the book takes place around a land he calls Israel, and the whole premise behind the need for creating such a land is that there is a particular ethnic people who are under attack by everyone else. So, this "endangered" group creates a land they claim they require to stay safe from all those other people - which is OK, except that the majority of the endangered people don't end up living in this new land, some actually move out of this land, and end up just as safe as anyone else in the world. This makes no sense! Then he goes on to state that those endangered people are the only sane ones within that region, yet they kill off hundreds of thousands of people in that land to create this safe haven. That in itself seems a bit hard to fathom and is also contradictory. I would think that given the way he writes the story, he would have written it in a way that would have you feeling sorry for this endangered group, but how can you feel sorry for a group that kills hundreds of thousands of people? But I guess if he considered this oddity and many of the other contradictions in this book, there would be no need to have written such a story - and maybe he shouldn't have written it because who needs another legal adventure that doesn't hold up to common sense! This Dershowitz guy is no John Grisham, although I'm sure he wishes he was! Granted worse stories have been written, of course, however, while reading it, I couldn't help wondering who Hollywood would cast to play this Ariel Sharon character, a man who is supposed to be the modern day leader of this land, and who has played the biggest part in destroying those "other" people living on that land. He's apparently a big man, and John Candy is no longer with us (God rest his soul), and even if he was, this character is not at all funny, so it may have to be some lesser known fat man who is good at playing evil dictators or something. Overall, something like this could never happen in real life and if he wants to write to keep one's attention, he should try to at least write in such a way that is believable. If you really want to read good legal adventures, you're better off with Grisham. Or better yet, a more interesting adventure, complete with wizardry and sorcery, would be the Harry Potter series.
Rating:
Summary: Pleading not guilty for Israel
Review: Does Israel abide by international law? Do the Jews have the right to a state in Palestine? Did Israel cause the Palestinian refugee problem? Is Israel overly aggressive and excessively repressive? What is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East? How can the conflict end? These are some of the questions that Alan Dershowitz, of Harvard Law School, attempts to answer in "The Case for Israel." But, first, why does this case need to be made? Mr. Dershowitz believes there is a systematic attempt to misrepresent the facts of the Middle East conflict in order to tilt public opinion in favor of the Palestinians; thus, debate in the media and (particularly) in academia is all too often biased against Israel. So what are these facts that are being distorted? Mr. Dershowitz, for one, challenges the presumption that Jews are foreigners to Palestine. The role that other Arab countries have played in prolonging the misery of the Palestinians is another of his targets, as is the responsibility that the Palestinians bear for the failure of the two-state solution to come to fruition (the two state solution is inevitable, Mr. Dershowitz believes). The singling out of Israel for vices that it does not commit or that others commit in far greater lengths is another theme that stands out. Rarely do books take on so widely held views so openly and directly. The referential style of the book helps the reader navigate easily; but anyone who reads it cover to cover cannot fail to notice some repetition (including the usage of the same quote multiple times). Producing a book that balances the pro-Palestinian side of the argument is a daunting task but one at which Mr. Dershowitz has succeeded admirably. This book cannot be absent from anyone's reading list on the Middle East, though newcomers to the topic might find it more rewarding than veterans of the conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionist Tripe
Review: Alan Dershowitz has assembled an outrageously revisionist account of modern history in historic Palestine. Lifting generously--a bit too generously, perhaps--from such notable frauds as Joan Peters' "From Time Immemorial," Dershowitz reconstructs a tale of benevolent Jewish immigrants bravely resisting the onslaught of an anti-Semitic Arab Goliath--all the while, attempting to exude an air of moderation. In short, "The Case for Israel" merely regurgitates extremist Zionist myths in order to provide cover for the Israeli government's current incursions in the Occupied Territories. This latest piece of propaganda does nothing more than put Dershowitz in his place, as yet another purveyor of spurious scholarship in a long line of academic subterfuge.
Rating:
Summary: An antidote to college campus 'revisionism'
Review: 'The case for Israel' is a candid refutation of the litany of criticisms against the Jewish state. For the author, the task must have simaltaneously easy and painful - simple because so much of the anti-Israeli polemic is just that, and painful because that polemic is poisoning the well of the public discourse. Dershowitz presents few genuinely new defenses, but the strength of the book lies in his legal approach, and the comprehensive nature of the work. In short, the book is the best defense of Israel in a single volume to date. Some have commented on Dershowitz's obession with counterattacks on Said, Chomsky, and Finkelstein. I disagree. As anyone who is remotely familiar with college campus politics and academic trends, Said and Chomsky provide the intellectual foundation for the most truculent charges today. As a serious student of Mideast affairs, I highly recommend this book, but only to those who have already been exposed to Israel's worst critics.
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