On Friday, Alan Dershowitz — the famous lawyer and staunch Israel defender — wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling Black Lives Matter anti-Semitic for its criticism of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian. The piece was a classic example of misdirection not uncommon from vociferous pro-Israel commentators; taking criticism of Israel and spinning it as inherently anti-Semitic. The best way to show the mechanics of this misdirection, to expose it for its logical inconsistency, is to analyze each section of Dershowitz’s argument and point out where it goes wrong.
“It is a real tragedy that Black Lives Matter — which has done so much good in raising awareness of police abuses — has now moved away from its central mission and has declared war against the nation state of the Jewish people. In a recently issued ‘platform,’ more than 60 groups that form the core of the Black Lives Matter movement went out of their way to single out one foreign nation to accuse of genocide and apartheid.”
Dershowitz point that BLM has “moved away from its central mission” is presumptive and inaccurate. It is presumptive because Dershowitz has no say in what BLM’s central mission is or ought to be — that is, obviously, up to BLM. The statement is inaccurate because even if we believe Dershowitz’ implication that BLM’s “central mission” should only be about, in his words, “raising awareness of police abuses,” BLM’s criticism of Israel doesn’t divert from this.
The BLM platform has six sections... Only one subsection mentions Israel ... the subsection title has nothing to do with Israel. It is “A Cut in US Military Expenditures and A Reallocation of those Funds to Invest in Domestic Infrastructure and Community Wellbeing.” It’s hard to argue that Israel’s place in the platform diverts from the “central mission” when Israel is so peripheral in the first place. BLM’s point is not to criticize arbitrary human rights abuses; it is to criticize those abuses directly supported by the United States. The U.S. provides $3.1 billion dollars in military aid to Israel. That’s the largest amount of military aid U.S. gives to any country in the world.
Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic. Like other democracies, including our own, it has faults. Criticizing Israel’s settlement and occupation policies is fair game. But singling Israel out and falsely accusing it of “genocide” can be explained in no other way than blatant hatred of Jews and their state.”
Paragraph 5 is the thesis of Dershowitz’ argument. He tries to preempt criticism that would (and should) come his way by saying that “criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic.” But literally two sentences later, he calls a criticism of Israel anti-Semitic. What Dershowitz means to say is that criticism that he is okay with is not anti-Semitic. But as long as he doesn’t agree with it, it definitely is.
(Continued)
https://medium.com/@prasrajasekaran...-wrote-an-op-ed-in-the-5cb05a023dc#.3waj1jimw
“It is a real tragedy that Black Lives Matter — which has done so much good in raising awareness of police abuses — has now moved away from its central mission and has declared war against the nation state of the Jewish people. In a recently issued ‘platform,’ more than 60 groups that form the core of the Black Lives Matter movement went out of their way to single out one foreign nation to accuse of genocide and apartheid.”
Dershowitz point that BLM has “moved away from its central mission” is presumptive and inaccurate. It is presumptive because Dershowitz has no say in what BLM’s central mission is or ought to be — that is, obviously, up to BLM. The statement is inaccurate because even if we believe Dershowitz’ implication that BLM’s “central mission” should only be about, in his words, “raising awareness of police abuses,” BLM’s criticism of Israel doesn’t divert from this.
The BLM platform has six sections... Only one subsection mentions Israel ... the subsection title has nothing to do with Israel. It is “A Cut in US Military Expenditures and A Reallocation of those Funds to Invest in Domestic Infrastructure and Community Wellbeing.” It’s hard to argue that Israel’s place in the platform diverts from the “central mission” when Israel is so peripheral in the first place. BLM’s point is not to criticize arbitrary human rights abuses; it is to criticize those abuses directly supported by the United States. The U.S. provides $3.1 billion dollars in military aid to Israel. That’s the largest amount of military aid U.S. gives to any country in the world.
Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic. Like other democracies, including our own, it has faults. Criticizing Israel’s settlement and occupation policies is fair game. But singling Israel out and falsely accusing it of “genocide” can be explained in no other way than blatant hatred of Jews and their state.”
Paragraph 5 is the thesis of Dershowitz’ argument. He tries to preempt criticism that would (and should) come his way by saying that “criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic.” But literally two sentences later, he calls a criticism of Israel anti-Semitic. What Dershowitz means to say is that criticism that he is okay with is not anti-Semitic. But as long as he doesn’t agree with it, it definitely is.
(Continued)
https://medium.com/@prasrajasekaran...-wrote-an-op-ed-in-the-5cb05a023dc#.3waj1jimw