Dershowitz Defends Israeli Prisoner
Exchange
Published: Friday, October
28, 2011
Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz defended on
Thursday Israel’s decision to secure the return of captured soldier Gilad
Shalit in exchange for the release of around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners as
part and parcel of Israeli democracy, something that he said Western observers
do not take sufficient care to understand.
Dershowitz made the remarks at a talk alongside Rabbi
Jonathan H. Sacks, the chief religious leader of British Jews, and said that
Israel’s decision to agree to a swap represents a vital democracy insofar as
the movement to secure Shalit’s freedom was a popular one that was led by his
family and carried out in the court of public opinion.
“No matter what we may think in the halls of academia ...
ultimately, the decision has to be made by Israelis,” Dershowitz said.
Many observers have criticized Israel’s choice to release a
large number of prisoners in exchange for Shalit’s return, a decision that many
say will lead to further kidnappings of Israeli soldiers to be used as
bargaining chips. Dershowitz pushed back against American criticism of Israeli
policy by saying that American critics of Israel do not adequately take into consideration
Israel’s status as a democracy, which he said entitles it to a greater degree
of independence than some of its critics grant.
In the wake of the exchange, Dershowitz and Sacks both said
it was important for Israel to retain its Jewish identity even in the hailstorm
of conflict, adding that the long-standing tension between Israelis and
Palestinians should, in principle, be able to lead to a sense of understanding
between the two peoples.
“If there is anyone on earth who should be able to understand
Jewish struggles, it’s Palestinians,” Sacks said. “And if there is anyone on
earth who should be able to understand Palestinian struggles, it’s Jews.”
Dershowitz said that while the conflict is headed in the
wrong direction politically, it is moving in the right direction
intellectually.
“It can’t be based on ‘it’s our home’ or ‘it’s your home,’”
Dershowitz said. “It’s the home of both people and both people have to live in
peace with each other.”
Both Sacks and Dershowitz, two highly vocal advocates for a
Jewish state, recognized the difficulty of the conflict. For all their
expertise on the matter, neither Sacks nor Dershowitz had a clear view of
whether the effort to achieve peace is progressing in the right direction.
Both men said that there was an inevitability to the tie
between the Jewish people’s history and today’s Israel. Because Jews are unique
in their perpetual homelessness, Israel remains a product of Jews’ history of
trauma and expulsion, Sacks said.
“Jews discovered that there was not one inch on the face of
the planet that they could call home,” Sacks said.
“It’s hard to see how, in a world in which there are 56
Islamic states and at least 82 Christian states, there isn’t room for one
Jewish state,” Sacks added. “Whatever criterion you use, Jews have a right to
this very small space.”
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