Law Professors

Professor Dershowitz's Response Still Misses My Core Argument

Professor Dershowitz provided a lot of context, but still doesn't get to the core of our disagreement.

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downloadEarlier today, we published a response by Professor Alan Dershowitz to an article I’d written earlier in the week. This isn’t something we do very often around here, but I certainly felt a legal luminary deserved every opportunity to set the record straight. He’s right that the tone of the initial post was caustic but… that’s kind of the thing around here. Anyone who can look past that and make a response on the merits deserves gratitude in a world where most people would isolate themselves from engagement.

One reason I included the video of his appearance on MSNBC was to give our readers the opportunity to put his remarks in context. In his response today he makes some good points. For example, I didn’t focus on whether or not he supported Bannon’s appointment per se — just that he “stuck up” for him against the hail of anti-Semitism claims. But it’s worth noting Dershowitz isn’t endorsing Bannon. And Dershowitz provided more context for his issues with Black Lives Matter, which he ties to the Movement for Black Lives coalition’s platform.

But here’s the core argument of my original piece. To go back, Dershowitz defended Bannon –again, as he notes, specifically on the anti-Semitism accusations — because he subscribes to this principle:

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.

Certainly Bannon doesn’t write everything on Breitbart. And there’s some value in separating an editor from his columnists (for example, I never subscribed to the views that one of our columnists espoused about Dershowitz in the past), but Breitbart is an entity whose transition from a less-stodgy National Review to an unchecked, race-baiting “alt-Right” sewer reflects the vision that Bannon imposed on the site after Andrew Breitbart’s death. That David Horowitz wrote the piece designed to inflame anti-Semitic interest doesn’t absolve Bannon of his role in forging that platform. Nor do its pieces lionizing hate symbolism.

The point of my piece was that, for whatever reason, Dershowitz thought these were NOT sufficiently overwhelming evidence of anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, he does think that a platform drafted by a loose coalition of 28 organizations (and endorsed by assorted others) from within the non-hierarchical whole of the Black Lives Matter phenomenon containing a statement about Israel IS sufficiently overwhelming evidence of anti-Semitism.

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It’s that disconnect that was so jarring about his interview.

And, yes, I’m inclined to agree with arguments about the perils of genocide trivialization. It’s a word that shouldn’t be tossed around so lightly because it has important historical implications. But does this failure to appreciate the gravity of the word “genocide” — which should not have been used — rise to overwhelming evidence of the organization’s anti-Semitism? Especially compared to perusing Breitbart these days?

There’s the crux of my original post. That far too often, for a variety of reasons, people like Bannon get the benefit of the doubt. He can’t be responsible for every word or action and as the evidence keeps on piling up it just doesn’t ever quite reach overwhelming. But when a black rights movement takes any stance that deviates from what we want or expect to hear it is instantly elevated to the status of overwhelming evidence for writing off the organization. If they’ve both fanned the flames of anti-Semitism directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, why is one worthy of overlooking and the other isn’t?

My problem remains with the implicit double-standard.

Earlier: A Response To Joe Patrice
Alan Dershowitz Thinks ‘Black Lives Matter’ Is Anti-Semitic, Sticks Up For Steve Bannon

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HeadshotJoe 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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