Esteemed advocate Alan Dershowitz says that Israel should ignore international law when deciding how to deal with Iran.
International law is “a construct in the mind of a bunch of left wing academics,” he said, in a lecture at the Institute of National Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv last week “There is no basis for international law in any reality. It’s not based on legislation. Much of it is not based on treaty. It is the ultimate exercise in elitist non-democracy.”
Iran does not believe that its nuclear weapons program is in danger of being attacked, he estimated. It wrongly believes, he said, that Israel will not attack it unless the US gives it a green light.
The interim deal made with Iran in Geneva was “a mistake,” Dershowitz said. Iran “got what it wanted…China is already there in Tehran seeking business. Other countries are there seeking business. They see the end of the sanctions regime. The words may not be be that but the music is certainly in that direction.”
Iran has given up nothing in the deal, he explained. They are still developing rockets that can carry nuclear weapons. There has been no slowing down in the work of enrichment centrifuges, no ceasing of the Arak heavy water plant’s activity, and the Iranians see the deal as a victory.
The big difference between the US and Israel in this matter stems from the fact that the US is thousands of miles away from the Middle East, whereas for Israel, the Iranian threat is a much more serious one, said Dershowitz.
@ CuriousAmerican:
I run into these people all the time, they also include Amer. Indian who claim Jewish ancestory. Early hispanic settlement in and around San Antonio had Jewish anticedents.
Check this out honey bee
http://swja.arizona.edu/content/west-texas-jewish-pioneers
http://swja.arizona.edu/
I am Christian, but I found this SO fascinating that I studied in the 90s.
The history of the Crypto Jews was amazing.
http://swja.arizona.edu/content/crypto-jews
http://cryptojews.com/
There is a massive amount of history on the Web.
What happened was that many Jews fled Spain for the New World.
When the Inquisition hit Mexico, they fled north to Santa Fe; and hid out as crypto-Jews
They discovered abouit 20,000 of them in the 1960s. Most were Catholic, by then, but kept odd traditions like lighting Friday Candles or not eating pork.
They kept quiet and few knew about them. When Anthropologist went to study the locals of New Mexico around 1960s theyw ere astounded that about 20,000 were crypto Jews.
A lot of New Mexico Latinos are part Jewish. They are now Christian; and do not brag about it, but you would be surprised how many admit to one Jewish ancestor back there. They are happy being Christian, but they are part Jewish.
I met one in Albuquerque in 1990. She was Evangelical.
But on her grandmothers death bed the family secret was conveyed to her. She was about 1/4 Jewish.
mar55 Said:
The Jewish side of my family, all Progressives.
Laura Said:
He must know Obama is wrong but even his Harvard training can’t release him from his idealized Obamaism to admit it. He has no credibility. He actually makes Netanyahu’s case of the “bad” deal very well- so who he would vote for- the guy who does the right thing or the guy who’s captured his fancy? His cognitive dissonance must be killing him.
“First I want to praise President Obama and Secretary Kerry”, So says Mr. Dershowitz to start out his speech. He lost me right then and there. How can you on the one hand criticize the deal with Iran but praise the fools who are responsible for it? He cannot bring himself to admit that this democrat administration is innately hostile to Israel.
@ David Chase:
I have always felt that Dershowitz is an over-rated blow-hard with a “little man” complex. But then that is just my very humble oppinion.
Dershowitz is obviously a bright and well-spoken man but I wonder how much of what he says holds back or covers for the fact that for so long he praised and supported Obama on Israel. This might just be the best he can do but and, again, I wonder what he might really say (ironically, sort of like the Iranians) if he was speaking behind closed doors. His perspective on “the deal” and it’s possible consequences is clear and well articulated but I still think he is too ensconced in Obamism to be a true critic. BTW, is being half right anything like being half pregnant? It’s the half wrong part that worries me.
CuriousAmerican Said:
He is a half-wit
He is half-right.
Israel should ignore International Law and attack Iran.
But he is half wrong.
That statement INADVERTENTLY de-legitimized the Nuremberg Trial.
He should never have praised Obama and Kerry.