Tribute to Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist and political commentator and is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Known as "Israel’s single most visible defender – the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion", he comments regularly on issues related to Judaism, Israel, civil liberties, the War on Terror and the frist amendment.

Dershowitz is an outspoken commentator on the history and politics of Israel, and has engaged in highly publicized media confrontations on a number of different topics including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and lately, the Goldstone report. Dershowitz is often interviewed and commentates in the mainstream media.

Dershowitz is the author of a number books and articles which have been published worldwide. He often takes issue on controversial issues, and challenged Jimmy Carter to a debate at Brandeis University regarding Carter's book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid". Carter declined the challenge on the grounds that "There is no need . . . to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

Dershowitz has recently been active refuting the Goldstone report, a UN investigation of the "Operation Cast Lead" offensive in Gaza. He was invited to Forham Law School give a talk about the report. Dershowitz invited Goldstone to debate his analysis and findings and rebuttals. Goldstone refused.


In his talk, Dershowitz explains why the report is a farce and excuse to bash Israel which does not even legally classify as an investigation. He then continues to  explain his views and finally, opens the floor to questions.

A captivating 1.5hr video of the talk can be found here.

I am awed by his commitment, devotion, knowledge, eloquence and activities in a lot of fields that are dear to me.