Before we begin to analyze the bias writings of Alan Dershowitz, let's look at that Dershowitz himself. Dershowitz, grew up with an orthodox Jewish mother and father who started a synagogue in Brooklyn. He is a lawyer and a regular member of the Harvard Hillel. To say that Dershowitz is Jewish is an understatement. He has foot so far in the door that he might as well be inside the room. My main issue with Dershowitz’s writing is his theme of the Jews not being able to be colonialist because they aren't connected to a nation and were fleeing anti-semitism. although this does have some truth, he claims that the jews only sought “a home in our own country” (pg. 15) which isn’t true. The man considered the father of zionism, Theodore Herzl, …show more content…
Herzel and other zionist were actively seeking jewish states in Uganda and other places around the world but ended up choosing Palestine for it’s biblical history. He also claims that there was and always had been a major jewish presence in and around Palestine. This “fact” is also incredibly debateable and dershowitz said himself, census data and documents from before the era were poor and sometimes forged. The modern Muslims, had control of the ldn for close to 1200 years. Although you can claim that Jews were there first, there were many tribes living in Palestine when abraham arrived and after the 400 year enslavement in Egypt. If we have a right to the land before we lived there before, don't the Muslims who previously lived their and their tribal ancestors also have some claim to the land. Arguments like “the arabs tended to leave and not return, while the Jews were more stable.” (pg. 26) are one sided and biased because jews did leave and there were large periods of time were there was a complete absence of Jews completely. Dershowitz, on a number of occasions, attempted to draw a parallel between the Pilgrims and the Jews, both groups that faced religious persecution. He fails to mention that the pilgrims brutally slaughtered the indigenous people
Simon Wiesenthal’s book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness spoke to me about the question of forgiveness and repentance. Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He experienced many brutal and uneasy experiences that no human being should experience in their lifetime and bear to live with it. Death, suffering, and despair were common to Simon Wiesenthal that he questioned his own religious faith because he asks why would his God allow the Holocaust happen to his people to be slaughter and not do anything to save them. During Simon Wiesenthal time as a Jewish Holocaust, Simon was invited to a military hospital where a dying Nazi SS officer wanted to have a conversation. The Nazi SS officer told Simon his story of his life and confesses to Simon of his horrific war crimes. Ultimately, the SS officer wanted forgiveness for what he done to Simon’s Jewish people. Simon Wiesenthal could not respond to his request, because he did not know what to do with a war criminal that participate in mass genocide to Simon’s people. Simon Wiesenthal lives throughout his life on asking the same crucial question, “What would I have done?” (Wiesenthal 98). If the readers would be on the exact situation as Simon was
Imperialism, Colonialism, and war had a huge impact on the Middle East, and it can also be thought of as the source of conflict. According to the map in Document A, it shows that the size of the Ottoman Empire grew smaller after the first world war, along with this change came new boundaries. These borders were created by the victorious European countries that won World War I, and made different ethnic and religious groups separated and grouped together with others. Great Britain's took over Palestine mandate and developed the Balfour Declaration that promised Jews support in making a home in Palestine. Most of the Palestine land was populated with Arabs. As soon as Jewish immigration increased, so did the tension between the two groups because each felt like they deserved the Palestine land. Zionism began early in the history of Judiasm and it was the movement for the Jews to establish a home in Palestine, and return to their holy land. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed and the deep-seeded hatre against them increased
In the beginning, they bring up the religious factor. Daud is upset that the Israelis came and took part of the land. However, some Jews had been there all along possibly waiting for the others to come home. Palestine was the Jews Promised Land. This is the reason that the Jews choose no other place to worship and live other then Palestine and that's why it is so important for them to gain some of that back.
Alan Dershowitz challenges the legitimization of non-lethal torture in his essay, “Should the Ticking Bomb Terrorist be tortured?” He claims that torture should indeed be legitimized for specific scenarios that require such action. The ticking bomb terrorist gives the example of a terrorist withholding time-sensitive information that could result in the death of innocent citizens, if not shared. Not only does Dershowitz challenge the idea of torture, but he also gives a probable solution that favors the legitimization the torture. He mentions three values that would have to be complied with by all three branches of government if it were to be legitimated, which Dershowitz does endorse. The arguments of the two perspectives discussed in the
The book begins by giving a brief background into the setting of America at the onset of the war. It details an anti-Semitic America. It also explains most of the anti-Semitism as passive, which ordinarily would do little harm, but during a holocaust crisis became a reason for America’s inaction.
The Jewish State was a book written by Herzl in 1895, which gave reasons for the Jewish population to move from Europe to either Argentina or Israel and make a new Jewish state of their own. Herzl thought the Jewish people had obtained a solid national identity but lacked a nation with a political system of their own. With their own Jewish State, the Jews could be free to practice their religion and culture without the fear of anti-Semitism. In The Jewish State he wrote. Herzl suggested a plan for political action in which they would acquire the Jewish State. He believed Jews trying to assimilate into European society were wasting their time, because the majority would always decide their role in society. As the anti-Semitism in Europe grew, it became clear that the only way to solve the Jewish problem would be to create their own Jewish sta...
Humans are no strangers to war. They have fought for freedom. They’ve fought for land. They have fought for resources. Israel became a country in 1948 with the help of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They thought process behind creating the Nation of Israel was the fact that it was the original Jewish homeland. The Jewish people were desperate for a country to call their own because of the Third Reich. Germany, under the reign of Hitler, had destroyed many homes and relocated Jewish families. Arabs became upset because they had lived there for many generations. Samuel Hazo, in “For Fawzi in Jerusalem,” writes about a narrator having a conversation between the narrator who is obviously an educated and someone who is part of the middle or high class and an Arab shoe shiner named Fawzi. The narrator is most likely Jewish. Samuel Hazo was greatly influenced by the Arab and Israeli War of 1948 and believes that the resentment because of losing their land is justified.
The story of the state of Israel began with a man named Abraham, and a promise that God made to him. God told him to leave his homeland, promising Abraham and his descendants a new home in the land of Canaan, known as present day Israel(Rich, 1). Abraham was a firm believer in God, and decided to carry out his commands, since he knew God would be able to fulfill His promise to him. It was here, that God gave Abraham a unique homeland for his descendents to form a model nation. In the Torah, The Land of Israel was claimed to be the only place on the earth where the Jewish people could create the model nation(Spiro, 1). Jews desired to fulfill God’s plan to create the model nation, forming a strong connection between the land and the people for all eternity. Nonetheless, the Jews have not always been in political control of Israel; foreign nations had always been attacking the land...
Most interpretations of history are to some extend based on an arbitrary selection of events influenced by ideology. Accordingly, they can easily assume a mythical character, which can function to legitimize social and political practices or mobilize action or identification with a cause through anchoring of the present in the past and actualization of the past in the present. Through this mythologization, nations, social groups or set of individuals produce its collective memory and establish their distinctive identity (Wistrich and Ohana 1995: ix). In order to understand how the Zionist movement creates their specific view on the Diaspora, and how Gordon uses this view to establish a distinct identity for the Jewish people, we must understand the mechanics of collective memory.
“Many Jews were fleeing Europe from Hitler so that they can reclaim the land they believed was their Biblical birthright, (Document 4 Excepts from the Israeli Declaration of Independence). Leaders were petitioning Great Britain to allow Jewish people to begin migrating into Palestine, then in 194 8the formal state of Israel was formed. “The Balfour Declaration Britain promised a national home for the Jewish people as seen in” (document 2). However, people were already living there so the natives felt like they were getting there home taken away from
Ultimately, people liked to be more respected than new immigrants. Because the Jews were constantly searching for accepting societies, they continuously faced similar problems, as nobody wanted to be equal to immigrants, especially Jewish ones. Herzl’s solution to this issue was to create a Jewish state where Jews would not be considered “new immigrants.” This state would ensure safety for the Jews and a secure territory where Jews could avoid persecution. Unlike other Zionist thinkers, Herzl did not think that the Jewish state had to be in Palestine. He said that it could be anywhere. Herzl added that a Jewish state in the Jewish historic district would be nice, but that it would not be necessary. He said that the Jewish state would be considered a Jewish “home.” The most important aspect of the state for him would be the
In the essay “Shame”, by Dick Gregory, the author narrates how two painful experiences during his childhood reflected how difficult it was to grow up as a poor African American. Gregory was ashamed of being on welfare and of his poverty, so much so that he got of rid of the warm hooded mackaw he received because it was a reminder that he and his family were on relief. Gregory also expresses his embarrassment, shame, and desire to hold onto his dignity throughout it all. In the essay “I Became Her Target”, by Roger Wilkins, the author describes how it was difficult for him to break the ice with his classmates because he was a new student in school. In fact, Wilkins was the only black student in this new school which only worsened the situation. Moreover, he was the target of both
Obviously there was no right for a nation “outsiders” to grant the creation of a new nation into an existed nation, which was the Palestinian land
On November 2 1917 the Balfour Declaration was issued from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild conveying a promise to the Zionist Federation of a national home in Palestine. This appeared to be a step closer towards materially realising the early Zionist aspirations as previously articulated by Theodor Herzl in August 1897 when he envisioned “the creation of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine to be secured by public law.” Although professing to be a “declaration of sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations” in reality the reasons behind the Balfour Declaration surpassed Zionist efforts in British politics or genuine pro-Zionist sympathies. Despite many Zionists becoming increasingly active in British politics, the formation of a Jewish state was not the intended consequence of the declaration; rather it was primarily in provision of British own interests in Palestinian territory. This land, to which the Balfour Declaration referred had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century and included contemporary Israel and a small section of present-day Jordan. It occupied a prime strategic position dividing two French colonies, Syria and Lebanon, and the British colony in Egypt whilst harbouring jurisdiction over the prized Suez Canal. Simultaneously British had imperialistic motives to take advantage of the power vacuum left vacant by the slow death of the Sick Man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire. The Balfour Declaration also temporarily allowed the Britain to hold the balance of power between the two opposing nationalist movements in Palestine however it did obligate them to both sides proving a future problem. It was also hoped that propagating a future national home to the Zionists at large would secure the ...
When Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly, he tried to articulate the actions the Palestinian Liberation Organization had taken and to justify those actions. Arafat points out that the struggles with Imperialism and Zionism began in 1881 when the first large wave of immigrants began arriving in Palestine. Prior to this date, the Muslims, Jews (20,000) and Christians all cohabitated peacefully (pop. 1/2 million). In 1917, the Belfour Declaration authorized increased immigration of European Jews to Palestine. 1 From 1917 to 1947, the Jewish population in Palestine increased to 600,000 and they rightfully owned only 6% of the Palestinian arable land. Palestine population at this time was now up to 1,250,000. 1