Alan Dershowitz

Thursday night I went to the Alan Dershowtiz seminar at UCI. He discussed a topic prominent in not only my religion, my culture, and my family, but the world as a whole. His main idea was his argument for a 2-state solution in the Middle East, but the topic I'd like to focus on is his comments about Jimmy Carter's pseudo-humanitarian efforts in Israel occupied territories. He feels that Carter not only mis-prioritizes the regions that he spends his efforts on, considering the dyer circumstances in many nations in Africa as well as inhumane treatment of civilians on several Arabic countries. Carter believes that all of the problems in Gaza stem from poor Israeli policies and purposeful attempt of the Israeli people to keep the Palestinians down. This goes on with a long-line of traditional Muslim ideology that the Jews are trying to eliminate the helpless Palestinians. Now, Dershowitz claims that these accusations are not only incorrect, but assists in perpetuating the stereotype that Israel is the criminal in a undefendable scenario. Examples such as honor killings of women who have been raped in order to maintain the honor of the family, and greed by the leaders of the occupied territories like Yassar Arafat are true reasons for why these areas are still in dense poverty and are in no condition to emerge as a industrialized region. So the point I'd like to make is that if people like Jimmy Carter manipulate the media and emphasize all the critiques of Israel and completely negate all the positives and trials that Israel has had to go through, then it should come to no surprise that world-wide there is little support for a nation that 60 years later is still fighting for their existence.