Dershowitz Responds to Walt and Mearsheimer Paper

By Published On: April 6, 2006

Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Web site has published on its Web site Professor Alan Dershowitz’s paper responding to the Walt and Mearsheimer “Israel Lobby” piece.

Dershowitz, whose paper cites CAMERA’s detailed refutation of Walt and Mearsheimer’s claims, states:

As an advocate of free speech and an opponent of censorship based on political correctness, I welcome a serious, balanced, objective study of the influences of lobbies — including Israeli lobbies — on American foreign policy. I also welcome reasoned, contextual and comparative criticism of Israeli policies and actions. Let the marketplace of ideas remain open to all. But, as I will show, this study is so filled with distortions, so empty of originality or new evidence, so tendentious in its tone, so lacking in nuance and balance, so unscholarly in its approach, so riddled with obvious factual errors that could easily have been checked (but obviously were not), and so dependent on biased, extremist and anti-American sources, as to raise the question of motive. …

This is not academic writing. There is no weighing of evidence. Mearsheimer and Walt simply chose the most insidious explanation – which also happened to be the least plausible explanation – and dismissed all other possibilities without even an acknowledgement that other interpretations are possible.

Read it here.

We expose the anti-Israel lies so you don't have to. But we can't do it without your help. Join the fight -- Donate now
Tell the World – Share Now!

More from SNAPSHOTS

  • Los Angeles Times Errs on Argentina Cancellation

    June 18, 2018

    A June 15 Los Angeles Times sports article (online here, "Lionel Messi needs a World Cup while Iceland is just happy to be playing in one"), Kevin Baxter errs about the Argentinian team's cancellation of [...]

  • CNN’s Ben Wedeman Falsely Reports No Soldiers Injured in Gaza Border Violence

    June 17, 2018

    In a June 7 broadcast and online here, Ben Wedeman incorrectly reported that in the course of the ongoing "March of Return" violence at the Gaza border, "No Israeli soldiers were killed or injured during [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Hezbollah Helps Hamas Build Terror Camps, Israel Calls for U.N. Help

    June 12, 2018

    Well equipped Hamas operatives Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based, Iranian-backed terrorist group is helping Hamas build rocket factories and terror training camps in southern Lebanon, according to a Jerusalem Post report. Hezbollah’s assistance violates several United Nations [...]

  • AFP Captions Whitewash Berlin Al Quds Rally

    June 12, 2018

    According to The Jerusalem Post ("Heavy Turnout at Al-Quds Rally in Berlin Calls for Israel's Destruction"), participants at the June 9 anti-Israel Al Quds march in Berlin chanted "Zionists are the perpetrators" and "Zionists anywhere, [...]

  • Palestinian Fire Kites Are No Child’s Play

    June 7, 2018

    Palestinians set Israeli fields ablaze with fire kitesMuch of the media has been either ignoring or minimizing the incendiary kites launched by Palestinians into Israeli territory. The New York Times, for example, describes them as [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? Israel Foils Assassination Plot Targeting Netanyahu and Others

    June 6, 2018

    Israeli authorities uncovered and thwarted a terrorist cell that planned to murder top governmental officials, including the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat. However, many major U.S. news outlets [...]

  • U.S. Official: Iran’s Support for Hezbollah Greater Than Previously Thought

    June 6, 2018

    Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah The Islamic Republic of Iran’s support for Hezbollah might be greater than previously thought. Tehran gives the Lebanese-based terrorist group $700 million a year, according to recent remarks by the U.S. [...]

  • Where’s the Coverage? 14 Members of Congress Call to Halt PA Aid

    June 1, 2018

    U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo In a widely underreported move, fourteen members of the United States Congress called upon the U.S. State Department to “immediately suspend all aid payments to the Palestinian Authority.” The [...]

  • Some Real Self-Criticism at CATC

    May 30, 2018

  • Michael Brown Exposes Double-Standard at Christ at the Checkpoint

    May 30, 2018

    Michael Brown speaks at the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference on May 29, 2018. (Photo: Dexter Van Zile) Every two years, the ritual is repeated. The organizers of the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference, a [...]