[The following is a guest post by local writer/columnist, Janet Tassel.]

Dershowitz Falls For It: The "Compromise"

Alan Dershowitz's latest gambit as lead attorney for Disillusioned Jews for Obama, "Has Obama Turned On Israel?" (Wall Street Journal, July 3) is pathetic in a number of ways. But it is unforgivably craven in its propagation of a cruel practical joke in the guise of a "logical compromise." On the advice of someone named Yousef Munayyer, whom Dershowitz calls a "leader" in Arab-American relations, Dershowitz scandalously suggests that Jews should be crowded into a piece of land -- their own land -- and build vertically, but not horizontally; "in other words, ...'up' rather than 'out.'"

Perhaps he has in mind the medieval ghetto in Venice. Would the Jews imprisoned in the proposed West Bank ghettos be forced to wear yellow? Would physicians have to cut their sleeves? Would they have to pay night watchmen to protect them -- and day watchmen to prevent those not on the approved list from leaving?

In Munayyer's scurrilous article at Counterpunch.org., "Seeing Through Israeli Delay Tactics," (June 23, 2009) [The Boston Globe had it the day before. Leave it to them. -S] -- situated fittingly alongside an ad for "The Case Against Israel, a 'devastating rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz,'" -- Munayyer makes clear that the West Bank is "Palestinian land." Anyone who understands construction, says Munayyer, "could tell you that you do not need to usurp more Palestinian land to accommodate the growth of families. You simply should build up."

But wait. If this is indeed Palestinian land, will Jews be allowed to build structures higher than those of Muslims? Absolutely not, according to the Qur'an. Surrounded by Christians, the Jews of Venice had plenty of tzuris, but surrounded by Muslims, they would have a whole new set of curses, assuming, of course they survived at all. As dhimmis, or infidels, they would be required to pay the jizya, the tax required of all infidels. They could not build or rebuild synagogues, and as Robert Spencer writes, quoting from a recent sermon at a mosque in Mecca, the authorities would expect them to "rise when a Muslim wishes to sit," never "imitate Muslims in dress and speech, nor ride horses, nor own swords, nor arm themselves with any kind of weapon...nor sell wine" and be careful to "shave their hair in front so as to make them easily identifiable..." among a host of other demeaning restrictions. "If they violate these conditions," according to the sermon, "they have no protection."

Fortunately, however, we can breathe a sigh of relief, for a ghetto like the one envisioned by Dershowitz and Munayyer is unlikely, thanks to Islam's prohibition against high-living Jews. Munayyer, then, is pulling Dershowitz's forelocks, when he writes at Counterpunch, "The Obama administration should not put up with any delaying tactics when it comes to a settlement freeze. Obama should make it clear to the Israelis that settlers should feel free to grow their families as long as their settlements grow vertically, and not horizontally over Palestinian land. The settlements shouldn't be there to begin with." Well, that's settled.

Munayyer is full of other helpful advice. "If the Israelis need any tips on dealing with the rapid growth of population in confined space, they should observe how Gazans have been living for the past 42 years under occupation." Which occupation would that be? Perhaps he is referring to the squalid, teeming refugee camps mandated by the Arab countries and corruptly maintained by the mafia known as UNRWA. He couldn't be speaking of the Jews who have lived in Gaza since the '30s, and whose descendants took the arid sand dunes and transformed them into lush groves and greenhouses. The best tomatoes in the world were grown by the Jews in Gaza, until their government forcibly evicted them in 2005. No more groves and greenhouses; now tunnels and missile emplacements. Confined space, indeed.

The settlers are hogging all the land and water, he complains. "That's why anyone who has seen settlers watering the lawns of their large houses while nearby Palestinian towns face water shortages realizes that the excuse of 'natural growth' is a farce intended only to delay and deceive." Aside from the sick joke about the "large houses," it is well-known, though not perhaps to Munayyer's readers, that it is Palestinians who are using Israeli water, pumped by Israel into the West Bank. CAMERA's website has numerous photos of frollicking kids in West Bank swimming pools--in Jenin, Ramallah, Jericho, Hebron, and elsewhere.

One would expect legal experts like Dershowitz, who care for the future of Israel, perhaps to investigate the growing awareness of vast illegal Arab occupation in parts of Jerusalem. One would expect Dershowitz, at the very least, to keep his distance from malicious con men like Munayyer, and treat their humbug for what it is, instead of giving it credibility as a "logical compromise." Unhappily, it seems that what Dershowitz is compromising is his own conscience.

Janet Tassel