Winter
2003
Dershowitz, For the Defense
page
1 |
2 | 3 |
4 | 5
Garrett:
Why, considering that it is such a tiny country, is the world so
focused on Israel?
Dershowitz:
Why is the world so focused on Israel? And why is the world so focused
on Palestinian statehood? Why has the Palestinian cause been leapfrogged
ahead of the Tibetans at the U.N.? The Tibetans can't get a meeting
at the U.N., can't even get into the building. Why not the Kurds?
Why not the Armenians? Why not the Chechens? Why not so many others
with equal or greater moral claims?
There
are several reasons. The first is terrorism. The Palestinians have
mastered the art of using terrorism to bring themselves to the attention
of the world. Second, the group that they claim oppresses them happens
to be the Jew among nations, not the most popular group in the world.
It's much easier to oppose the Jewish nation than to oppose China,
or to oppose Turkey, or to oppose other stronger countries. The
third reason is oil. The allies of the Palestinians are oil-rich
nations. And the fourth reason is because Israel is seen as a surrogate
in many parts of the world for the United States. And a lot of anti-Americanism
really manifests itself as anti-Israel bashing, particularly on
college campuses.
Garrett:
What more can people do to better prepare themselves to counter
these attitudes?
Dershowitz:
Read. Learn. Debate. Argue. Listen. Keep an open mind. If you do,
you will come out with a far more nuanced view, a far more balanced
view, a view that shows there are rights and wrongs on both sides,
and a view that will lead us toward the possibility of reconciliation.
<previous>
|
