Law Professors, Racism

Alan Dershowitz Thinks 'Black Lives Matter' Is Anti-Semitic, Sticks Up For Steve Bannon

Dershowitz has hopped on the crazy bus.

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Alan Dershowitz 3UPDATE: Professor Dershowitz responds to this piece here and Joe rebuts that here.

On MSNBC, Professor Alan Dershowitz went on television to explain with a straight face that there’s no evidence to suggest that Steve Bannon is anti-Semitic (??) and to label Black Lives Matter an anti-Semitic movement (???).

Well… that’s certainly a hot take.

The interview with Steve Kornacki was, at times, grounded in reasonability. Of Bannon, the man in charge of a website that stirs up its many proud, card-carrying anti-Semitic audience members with headlines labeling Bill Kristol a “Renegade Jew” and standing up for the Confederate flag, Dershowitz tried to parse the fact that Breitbart traffics in racism and anti-Semitism from Bannon’s personal beliefs. This may be a stretch, but at least there’s an argument. As Professor Dershowitz notes:

“Look, I don’t know whether he’s an anti-Semite or not. I just don’t think you should toss that phrase around casually unless there’s overwhelming evidence.”

It would seem as though the Breitbart website is pretty overwhelming evidence. Moreover, assuming arguendo that Bannon doesn’t really subscribe to his website’s beliefs but pushes a hate-filled editorial vision for the sake of clicks, that… probably makes him worse, right? But Dershowitz blows by this and instead delves into a bizarre analogy, claiming that Representative Keith Ellison, a Muslim member of Congress running for DNC Chair, may be a good guy but that if he “were to be appointed the head of the Democratic National Committee, Hamas would support it, would cheer and yell….”

Wha? Apparently because Ellison went to the Million Man March and Farrakhan gave a speech there that means Hamas wants Ellison in charge of the Democratic party committee and Ellison is responsible for that? Or something? Look, that’s all obviously equivalent to running an anti-Semitic website for anti-Semites. Look, just trust him — he got Claus von Bülow off so he must have a handle on all this.

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Well, regardless of whether or not he’s right about Bannon, it’s admirable that Dershowitz is at least trying to temper how people are labeled. Such allegations shouldn’t be made “casually unless there’s overwhelming evidence.”

I love the concept of Black Lives Matter, but they are an anti-Semitic group.

Alrighty then. Time to up his meds.

If one were curious where Dershowitz gets his “overwhelming evidence” to throw around this phrase so casually, he gets it by suggesting that Black Lives Matter — uniformly, I guess, as if there’s a hierarchy there — opposes the state of Israel. Which, I mean, it’s certainly possible someone in the movement also has sympathy for Palestinians. But that doesn’t seem like the core message because the Black Lives Matter folks have more immediate concerns about, oh, I don’t know, “Black Lives.” But wow, the lengths people will go to get out of standing up for a pretty straightforward cause.

But, you know, Bannon deserves the benefit of the doubt.

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Here’s the whole bonkers interview, including a long stretch on how college campuses don’t unquestioningly swallow racist tripe anymore and therefore they’re more hate-filled than the right wing. The whole thing is a sight to behold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GyBddkscvg

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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