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The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them with Truth
The goal of The Ten Big Anti-Israel And How to Refute Them with Truth is to contribute to the marketplace if ideas by offering truthful and well-documented facts that disprove the defamatory fictions—the big lies—that are pervasive in the current protests against Israel. The book’s intended audiences are open-minded students and others who seek to hear fact-based information on all sides of the relevant issues. It is also designed to provide intellectual ammunition to pro-Israel students who seek to engage in exchanges with their anti-Israel interlocutors.
It is hoped that this book, will help promote fact-based debate and dialogue about Israel and its enemies. As a lifelong Zionist and supporter—though often a critical supporter—of Israel, I am convinced that the unvarnished truth about all sides of the conflict will, if fairly assessed, refute the blood libels currently directed at the nation-state of the Jewish people.
This book will demonstrate that the vast majority of accusations leveled by the anti-Israel protestors and professors are false. I will describe their ten central accusations about the past, the present, and the future, and then refute them with indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence.
It is hoped that this book, will help promote fact-based debate and dialogue about Israel and its enemies. As a lifelong Zionist and supporter—though often a critical supporter—of Israel, I am convinced that the unvarnished truth about all sides of the conflict will, if fairly assessed, refute the blood libels currently directed at the nation-state of the Jewish people.
This book will demonstrate that the vast majority of accusations leveled by the anti-Israel protestors and professors are false. I will describe their ten central accusations about the past, the present, and the future, and then refute them with indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence.
80 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2024
308 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Alan M. Dershowitz
148 books320 followersAlan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is known for his career as an attorney in several high-profile law cases and commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
He has spent most of his career at Harvard, where, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor in its history, until Noam Elkies took the record. Dershowitz still holds the record as the youngest person to become a professor of law there.
As a criminal appellate lawyer, Dershowitz has won thirteen out of the fifteen murder and attempted murder cases he has handled. He successfully argued to overturn the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of Bülow's wife, Sunny. Dershowitz was the appellate advisor for the defense in the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
He has spent most of his career at Harvard, where, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor in its history, until Noam Elkies took the record. Dershowitz still holds the record as the youngest person to become a professor of law there.
As a criminal appellate lawyer, Dershowitz has won thirteen out of the fifteen murder and attempted murder cases he has handled. He successfully argued to overturn the conviction of Claus von Bülow for the attempted murder of Bülow's wife, Sunny. Dershowitz was the appellate advisor for the defense in the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
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February 15, 2025
After reviewing 67 Israel/Palestinian books, it made sense for me read one by Dershowitz, the Teflon King of Hasbara. This book seemed the perfect condensation of his Manichean logic: Israel has never done anything wrong, Arabs (the Palestinians) never do anything right. Before we get to Alan’s delightful top ten “Lies” inside, look at the Islamophobic cover: its an illustration of a kneeling Israeli soldier pointing his rifle at an Islamic militant also kneeling pointing his rifle back at the Israeli. Fair enough but behind the Palestinian is clearly a Saudi Arabian flag. Why not draw a Palestinian flag, Alan? Propaganda Two: The Israeli soldier is bravely kneeling (in front of a baby carriage he is protecting) and shooting at the Palestinian – but the Palestinian has sociopathically put a baby carriage in front of his body and gun, mortally imperiling the Palestinian infant directly in front of him. Before you open this book – U Can C the Lie: Israel as Sabra heroically defends the defenseless, while resistance to Israel comes only from crazed religious fanatics with no respect for human life.
On page “V” Alan says all protestors who want a ceasefire are only capable of “shouting, sloganeering, propagandizing, protesting, defending, accusing, and ignoring or censoring opposing views.” Freudian Projection 101. Listen to this Alan quote explaining why he is perfect to defend Israel: “The criminal lawyer’s job, for the most part, is to represent the guilty and – if possible – to get them off.” He also said, “The defense attorney comes close to being a pure ONE-sided advocate for his generally guilty client.” He also said, “It is the job of the defense attorney – especially when representing the guilty – to prevent, by all lawful means, the ‘whole truth’ from coming out.” Fact-check those quotes. That, Ladies & Gentlemen, is the author of this book, intentionally keeping the “whole truth” from coming out. This is a tiny 65-page book that has no less than 15 direct references to “terrorists” on the Palestinian side using “human shields”. This book is all about framing emotional issues to trigger anger - simply google “Israeli use of human shields” and then read the top 10 stories for proof that Israel has a much MORE documented history of using human shields than Palestinians do. Perhaps Israelis took the Hypocritical Oath?
Here are the Alan’s Top Ten Points: Number One: He says anyone who says Israel is settler-colonial is either ignorant, a bigot, or both. Alan said Zionist settlers had “few guns” but instead “their tools were rakes and hoes” – picture a benign “Little House on the Prairie”. Alan calls Palestine before ’48 as a “materially worthless piece of real estate in a backwater” (on p.3). Alan won’t tell you how Israeli troops or settlers have uprooted an estimated 2.5 million trees just in parts of Palestine occupied since 1967, a third of them olive trees. Or tell you that by 1870, the Jaffa orange trade was exporting 38 million oranges. That’s a dozen years before the first Zionist settlers showed up. Or will Alan mention the 531 Palestinian towns and villages that were destroyed in 1948 to make Palestine worth even less. Alan says it’s ok to call New Zealand “settler-colonial”, but he says, “Israel is the opposite.” Note Alan calls out New Zealand, but not the US as settler-colonial – don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Alan’s Second Point: Israel never denied statehood to the Palestinians. Alan says the Arabs “rejected the two-state solution” and “They did not want a Palestinian state. And they wanted there to be no Jewish state.” Alan tells us “of the general hostility and hatred of the Jews by the Muslims.” Yep. How dare people deprived of rights and land by force, hating those who took them both away? Ben-Gurion eloquently said, “We must expel the Arabs and take their places …and if we have to use force – then we have force at our disposal.” Miko Peled says the main reason peace talks with the Palestinians fail is because Israel always demands “Israel’s ‘right’ to total domination of the land and the discourse.”
Alan’s Third Point: Israel NEVER caused a refugee problem with Palestinians: Erasure of the Nakba. Instead, Alan says “Arab leadership” declared “a genocidal war against the new state of the Jewish people”. Don’t dare google the well-documented Nakba, instead google the vaporous genocidal Arab war against Jews. On page 12 Alan accuses Palestinians during the British Mandate, of “massive violence directed at Jewish civilians” when Zionists actually killed more Palestinians during the Mandate than Hamas to date has killed Israelis. On page 14, Alan says Arabs were trying to kill as many children as possible (Freudian projection – Israel has killed more Gazan children since just 10/7/23 than Arabs killed Israeli children in the past 100 years). Alan uses the euphemism of “transfer” for obvious ethnic cleansing. Alan wants to believe there are no Palestinian refugees – that they only left because “Arab armies” “attacked the newly established state of Israel”. Alan blames the Grand Mufti rather than Plan D (Dalet) a.k.a. the Nakba. Alan wants you to believe thanks to the threatening Grand Mufti “Jews fully understood that they faced a slaughter should they be defeated” while Israel only wanted peace with the Arabs, but Arabs sadly wouldn’t surrender (their land and rights for all time for free to invaders). To comically push his point, Alan says “Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary, ‘I couldn’t understand. Why did the inhabitants …leave’?”
Alan’s Fourth Point: Israel is somehow NOT Apartheid even though Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even Israel’s own leading human rights group B’Tselem ALL call Israel’s practices “apartheid”. Apartheid is “legal dominance based on ethnicity, religion, or race.” Hafrada is the Hebrew word for Israeli apartheid, and it means the separation of people by ethnicity. In Israel, you have three systems of laws. One is democracy for Jews (80 percent of the population), a Judocracy or ethnocracy. In the second, you get racial discrimination for the 20% that are Israeli Arabs. “The third is apartheid for the population in the West Bank and Gaza.” “Israel cannot be a ‘Jewish State’ with millions of Palestinians under its control, unless it becomes a full-fledged apartheid state, justifying the lack of human rights for millions through racialized ideology.” “Palestinians are not seen as having a right to self-determination.” What you have presently is the “democracy of the master race”, herrenvolk democracy, lifted directly from Hitler’s dream. Israeli “Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog explicitly compared Israeli racism to ‘Alabama in the 1940’s’ – but with Israeli Jews figuratively on the opposite side of the barricade from American Jewish liberals (Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, etc.) who went down South to join the desegregation struggle.” “Every single major South African Apartheid law has a direct equivalent in Israel and the territories occupied in 1967.” The 2011 Russell Tribunal called Israel apartheid as well. But Israel’s apartheid is worse than South Africa’s was because Israel has gone so far as to seal off the offending native population leaving a generation which has never ventured beyond the walls of their “prison/concentration camp”. In addition, worse than South Africa’s Apartheid, Israel’s self-appointed job is “not to exploit but to eliminate indigenous Palestinian labor” – settler-colonialism 101.
Alan’s Fifth Point: Israel Commits neither Genocide nor War Crimes: To prove this you must ignore international law, the definition of both genocide and war crimes and when Ben Gurion said, “strike mercilessly, women and children included.” Professor Arnon Sofer of Haifa University has a deep concern about the present genocide by Zionists, saying, “The only thing that concerns me, is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.” Don’t be such a pussy Arnon. B’Tselem found that Israel destroying Gaza’s only power plant was a war crime.
Alan’s Sixth Point: Israel isn’t Starving ANYONE: a century ago even Zionist hero “Herzl himself had proposed starving out the indigenous population” but said that it had to be “carried out discreetly”. Gosh, I wonder why? By 1907, you have a young David Ben Gurion organizing boycotts “in order to starve non-Jews from the land. Such a noble religious goal, starving innocent people because you covet their land. “By all estimates, the situation in Gaza in 2024 was “the most intense man-made famine since the Second World War.” Malthus once called starvation a “war of extermination.” After October 7th, Israel demolished food infrastructure, from bakeries to mills and food retail, and enforced a blockade. “By May 2024, some 85% of children under five in Gaza spent days without food, while more than half a million Gazans were starving.” Zionist poet Ilan Scheinfeld wrote this evocative poem, “Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows and with salt, destroy them so no inhabitant remains. Transform them into barren desert, piles of rubble …kill them, spill their blood, frighten the living.” If Himmler and Goering said something like that about Poland it would be seen as evidence of their anti-Semitic sociopathic evil, but none around Scheinfeld even moved to criticize him. From Human Rights Watch in 2023: “In what might have been a first in the annals of modern warfare, Israeli forces systematically targeted hospitals as they ‘completely obliterated’ Gaza’s ‘healthcare infrastructure’. At the same time, Israel targeted water and sewage treatment facilities and employed ‘starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’ as it prevented deliveries of food, fuel, water, and medicines, and electricity to the battered enclave.” As a defense attorney, Alan knows well the importance of excluding ALL facts that disprove one’s thesis. [in order to see Alan’s 7-9 points go to my comment section, now we jump to 10].
Alan’s Tenth Point: Iran is Somehow a Huge Barrier to Peace: Israel loves to hate on Iran, but did you know “Israel, in fact, continued to supply the Khomeini regime with military equipment and ammunition at least until 1987”? This of course violated the US arms embargo at the time. Alan’s problem with Iran is that it supports Palestinian rights; if Israel tomorrow became a democracy for BOTH Israelis and Palestinians, Iran’s main remaining threat would become weaving better carpets. Zionists won’t tell you that Israel secretly having nuclear weapons (estimated at 200 of them) of course made Iran want to have them too. Israeli harps on and on about Iran wanting nuclear weapons – poor baby doesn’t like level-playing fields. The US pushed Iran towards Muslim extremism when it intentionally and foolishly amplified Israel’s anti-Iran rhetoric to the point that Iran’s elected moderate president Khatemi (pursuing domestic reforms and working w/ the US) lost the next election to Ahmadinejad, who as President killed off the reforms and relationship w/ the US. Israel hates Iran because Iran won’t get in line to obsequiously lick Israel’s ass, and also isn’t afraid to back Syria and Hezbollah. When Iran dared fund Hezbollah (to a far lesser extent financially than the US has funded Muslim extremism), Israel and US liberals went ape shit. Iran’s leaders in 2017 signed an Organization of Islamic Cooperation statement to the effect that it would recognize Israel if Israel simply allows sovereign states in West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.” So, the threat of Iran is that it DARES to want the rogue state Israel to follow international law. But Iran is the only nearby country sympathetic to Palestinians that Israel hasn’t forced the US to take out yet, and so it whines like a two-year old throwing a tantrum at a toy store.
Alan’s Bonus Eleventh Point: The US Left Only Champions the Palestinian Cause Ignoring Every Other Cause from Congo to Sudan. Since WWII, the Left has been rightfully concerned with world-wide liberation from colonialism. I’ve reviewed many Left books championing the causes of Kashmir, Western Sahara, and the neoliberal rape of most of the world, but Palestine gets first place because for well over a year Israel has been killing more members of a liberation movement than Sudan, India, China, and every other country you can think of put together has killed. Quick – name ANOTHER country recently dropping 2,000-pound bombs on dense civilian areas. You can’t. Logic dictates that you act to save the most people you can from danger – Rwanda’s genocide is history – Indonesia killing 500,000 is history, Pol Pot’s Killing Fields is history. Excuse Leftists if they focus first on ACTIVE ethnic cleansing in the ONE place where it is most extreme.
In conclusion, Alan is FIRST an apologist for Israel no matter what crimes it commits: From Norman Finkelstein, we learn Alan Dershowitz at a conference in front of Prime Minister Sharon, said Israel is not bound at all by international law. He said to the crowd “Your moral obligation to comply with the letter of international law is voluntary.” Could Himmler have said that any better? Dershowitz has said yes to targeted assassinations, home destruction, needles shoved under a prisoner’s fingernail, and ethnic cleansing. Dershowitz trots out the Geneva Accords fondly ONLY when Palestinian resistance involves aggression. Alan likes to say the audience after his talks often says to him, “we didn’t know.” Norman Finkelstein has quipped, “That’s because much of what you said wasn’t true.” Dershowitz says Israel’s human right record is “generally superb”. Norman in a book goes point by point against Dershowitz and what is striking is how often Dershowitz is shown to not have facts to back his own claims up. Dershowitz had the balls to say that Rachel Corrie “threw herself in front of the bulldozer” when eyewitnesses all disagreed. Dershowitz said Edward Said believed in violence all because one time he symbolically threw a single stone at the border that hit nothing but the ground. So much for Dershowitz’s ‘evidence’. Said actually “explicitly deplored terrorist attacks directly against Israeli civilians as “morally unacceptable.” Dershowitz denounced the World Court, saying “it would be insulting to kangaroos to call it a kangaroo court.” Dershowitz without evidence “upholds the ‘legal rights’ of Jewish settlers to live anywhere in the West Bank and in Gaza.” Comedy Sidenote: Harvard actually hired Dershowitz to teach “legal ethics”; that’s like hiring Jeffrey Dahmer to teach Culinary Skills.
This book is an official Hasbara manual that would make Netanyahu, AIPAC, Michael Rapport, Jerry Seinfeld, Noa Tishby, Bill Maher and Nikki Haley and any Zionist troll wannabe, all proud. Its thesis is Israel has NEVER made a mistake, and it’s a testament to Israeli compassion that Israel lets us (unchosen lifeforms) live on the same planet as the chosen (as long as we fund them uncritically and generously.) Israel doesn’t have to follow any laws; its above the law. On the last page Alan says his book is “objective truth” while the rest of us offer only “biased lies.” He ends by saying that this book will somehow “promote peace” - perhaps by Palestinians renouncing all resistance, and desire for basic rights while getting nothing in return except a guaranteed malnourished lifetime of humiliation and insults in the land of one’s ancestors. No one will read this book unless they need to counter diehard believers in the Golden Rule, International Law, basic compassion, and the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam. Most Zionists are secular, which for me makes it so funny that attacking them could somehow be anti-Semitic. My progressive Jewish friends say, “You can’t conflate criticizing a largely secular Israel with criticizing Judaism”. One is a militarized apartheid ethnostate dependent on settler-colonialism and one is a religion CLEARLY bound to the brotherhood of man. Like oil and water, they are incompatible.
On page “V” Alan says all protestors who want a ceasefire are only capable of “shouting, sloganeering, propagandizing, protesting, defending, accusing, and ignoring or censoring opposing views.” Freudian Projection 101. Listen to this Alan quote explaining why he is perfect to defend Israel: “The criminal lawyer’s job, for the most part, is to represent the guilty and – if possible – to get them off.” He also said, “The defense attorney comes close to being a pure ONE-sided advocate for his generally guilty client.” He also said, “It is the job of the defense attorney – especially when representing the guilty – to prevent, by all lawful means, the ‘whole truth’ from coming out.” Fact-check those quotes. That, Ladies & Gentlemen, is the author of this book, intentionally keeping the “whole truth” from coming out. This is a tiny 65-page book that has no less than 15 direct references to “terrorists” on the Palestinian side using “human shields”. This book is all about framing emotional issues to trigger anger - simply google “Israeli use of human shields” and then read the top 10 stories for proof that Israel has a much MORE documented history of using human shields than Palestinians do. Perhaps Israelis took the Hypocritical Oath?
Here are the Alan’s Top Ten Points: Number One: He says anyone who says Israel is settler-colonial is either ignorant, a bigot, or both. Alan said Zionist settlers had “few guns” but instead “their tools were rakes and hoes” – picture a benign “Little House on the Prairie”. Alan calls Palestine before ’48 as a “materially worthless piece of real estate in a backwater” (on p.3). Alan won’t tell you how Israeli troops or settlers have uprooted an estimated 2.5 million trees just in parts of Palestine occupied since 1967, a third of them olive trees. Or tell you that by 1870, the Jaffa orange trade was exporting 38 million oranges. That’s a dozen years before the first Zionist settlers showed up. Or will Alan mention the 531 Palestinian towns and villages that were destroyed in 1948 to make Palestine worth even less. Alan says it’s ok to call New Zealand “settler-colonial”, but he says, “Israel is the opposite.” Note Alan calls out New Zealand, but not the US as settler-colonial – don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Alan’s Second Point: Israel never denied statehood to the Palestinians. Alan says the Arabs “rejected the two-state solution” and “They did not want a Palestinian state. And they wanted there to be no Jewish state.” Alan tells us “of the general hostility and hatred of the Jews by the Muslims.” Yep. How dare people deprived of rights and land by force, hating those who took them both away? Ben-Gurion eloquently said, “We must expel the Arabs and take their places …and if we have to use force – then we have force at our disposal.” Miko Peled says the main reason peace talks with the Palestinians fail is because Israel always demands “Israel’s ‘right’ to total domination of the land and the discourse.”
Alan’s Third Point: Israel NEVER caused a refugee problem with Palestinians: Erasure of the Nakba. Instead, Alan says “Arab leadership” declared “a genocidal war against the new state of the Jewish people”. Don’t dare google the well-documented Nakba, instead google the vaporous genocidal Arab war against Jews. On page 12 Alan accuses Palestinians during the British Mandate, of “massive violence directed at Jewish civilians” when Zionists actually killed more Palestinians during the Mandate than Hamas to date has killed Israelis. On page 14, Alan says Arabs were trying to kill as many children as possible (Freudian projection – Israel has killed more Gazan children since just 10/7/23 than Arabs killed Israeli children in the past 100 years). Alan uses the euphemism of “transfer” for obvious ethnic cleansing. Alan wants to believe there are no Palestinian refugees – that they only left because “Arab armies” “attacked the newly established state of Israel”. Alan blames the Grand Mufti rather than Plan D (Dalet) a.k.a. the Nakba. Alan wants you to believe thanks to the threatening Grand Mufti “Jews fully understood that they faced a slaughter should they be defeated” while Israel only wanted peace with the Arabs, but Arabs sadly wouldn’t surrender (their land and rights for all time for free to invaders). To comically push his point, Alan says “Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary, ‘I couldn’t understand. Why did the inhabitants …leave’?”
Alan’s Fourth Point: Israel is somehow NOT Apartheid even though Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even Israel’s own leading human rights group B’Tselem ALL call Israel’s practices “apartheid”. Apartheid is “legal dominance based on ethnicity, religion, or race.” Hafrada is the Hebrew word for Israeli apartheid, and it means the separation of people by ethnicity. In Israel, you have three systems of laws. One is democracy for Jews (80 percent of the population), a Judocracy or ethnocracy. In the second, you get racial discrimination for the 20% that are Israeli Arabs. “The third is apartheid for the population in the West Bank and Gaza.” “Israel cannot be a ‘Jewish State’ with millions of Palestinians under its control, unless it becomes a full-fledged apartheid state, justifying the lack of human rights for millions through racialized ideology.” “Palestinians are not seen as having a right to self-determination.” What you have presently is the “democracy of the master race”, herrenvolk democracy, lifted directly from Hitler’s dream. Israeli “Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog explicitly compared Israeli racism to ‘Alabama in the 1940’s’ – but with Israeli Jews figuratively on the opposite side of the barricade from American Jewish liberals (Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, etc.) who went down South to join the desegregation struggle.” “Every single major South African Apartheid law has a direct equivalent in Israel and the territories occupied in 1967.” The 2011 Russell Tribunal called Israel apartheid as well. But Israel’s apartheid is worse than South Africa’s was because Israel has gone so far as to seal off the offending native population leaving a generation which has never ventured beyond the walls of their “prison/concentration camp”. In addition, worse than South Africa’s Apartheid, Israel’s self-appointed job is “not to exploit but to eliminate indigenous Palestinian labor” – settler-colonialism 101.
Alan’s Fifth Point: Israel Commits neither Genocide nor War Crimes: To prove this you must ignore international law, the definition of both genocide and war crimes and when Ben Gurion said, “strike mercilessly, women and children included.” Professor Arnon Sofer of Haifa University has a deep concern about the present genocide by Zionists, saying, “The only thing that concerns me, is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.” Don’t be such a pussy Arnon. B’Tselem found that Israel destroying Gaza’s only power plant was a war crime.
Alan’s Sixth Point: Israel isn’t Starving ANYONE: a century ago even Zionist hero “Herzl himself had proposed starving out the indigenous population” but said that it had to be “carried out discreetly”. Gosh, I wonder why? By 1907, you have a young David Ben Gurion organizing boycotts “in order to starve non-Jews from the land. Such a noble religious goal, starving innocent people because you covet their land. “By all estimates, the situation in Gaza in 2024 was “the most intense man-made famine since the Second World War.” Malthus once called starvation a “war of extermination.” After October 7th, Israel demolished food infrastructure, from bakeries to mills and food retail, and enforced a blockade. “By May 2024, some 85% of children under five in Gaza spent days without food, while more than half a million Gazans were starving.” Zionist poet Ilan Scheinfeld wrote this evocative poem, “Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows and with salt, destroy them so no inhabitant remains. Transform them into barren desert, piles of rubble …kill them, spill their blood, frighten the living.” If Himmler and Goering said something like that about Poland it would be seen as evidence of their anti-Semitic sociopathic evil, but none around Scheinfeld even moved to criticize him. From Human Rights Watch in 2023: “In what might have been a first in the annals of modern warfare, Israeli forces systematically targeted hospitals as they ‘completely obliterated’ Gaza’s ‘healthcare infrastructure’. At the same time, Israel targeted water and sewage treatment facilities and employed ‘starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’ as it prevented deliveries of food, fuel, water, and medicines, and electricity to the battered enclave.” As a defense attorney, Alan knows well the importance of excluding ALL facts that disprove one’s thesis. [in order to see Alan’s 7-9 points go to my comment section, now we jump to 10].
Alan’s Tenth Point: Iran is Somehow a Huge Barrier to Peace: Israel loves to hate on Iran, but did you know “Israel, in fact, continued to supply the Khomeini regime with military equipment and ammunition at least until 1987”? This of course violated the US arms embargo at the time. Alan’s problem with Iran is that it supports Palestinian rights; if Israel tomorrow became a democracy for BOTH Israelis and Palestinians, Iran’s main remaining threat would become weaving better carpets. Zionists won’t tell you that Israel secretly having nuclear weapons (estimated at 200 of them) of course made Iran want to have them too. Israeli harps on and on about Iran wanting nuclear weapons – poor baby doesn’t like level-playing fields. The US pushed Iran towards Muslim extremism when it intentionally and foolishly amplified Israel’s anti-Iran rhetoric to the point that Iran’s elected moderate president Khatemi (pursuing domestic reforms and working w/ the US) lost the next election to Ahmadinejad, who as President killed off the reforms and relationship w/ the US. Israel hates Iran because Iran won’t get in line to obsequiously lick Israel’s ass, and also isn’t afraid to back Syria and Hezbollah. When Iran dared fund Hezbollah (to a far lesser extent financially than the US has funded Muslim extremism), Israel and US liberals went ape shit. Iran’s leaders in 2017 signed an Organization of Islamic Cooperation statement to the effect that it would recognize Israel if Israel simply allows sovereign states in West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem and “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.” So, the threat of Iran is that it DARES to want the rogue state Israel to follow international law. But Iran is the only nearby country sympathetic to Palestinians that Israel hasn’t forced the US to take out yet, and so it whines like a two-year old throwing a tantrum at a toy store.
Alan’s Bonus Eleventh Point: The US Left Only Champions the Palestinian Cause Ignoring Every Other Cause from Congo to Sudan. Since WWII, the Left has been rightfully concerned with world-wide liberation from colonialism. I’ve reviewed many Left books championing the causes of Kashmir, Western Sahara, and the neoliberal rape of most of the world, but Palestine gets first place because for well over a year Israel has been killing more members of a liberation movement than Sudan, India, China, and every other country you can think of put together has killed. Quick – name ANOTHER country recently dropping 2,000-pound bombs on dense civilian areas. You can’t. Logic dictates that you act to save the most people you can from danger – Rwanda’s genocide is history – Indonesia killing 500,000 is history, Pol Pot’s Killing Fields is history. Excuse Leftists if they focus first on ACTIVE ethnic cleansing in the ONE place where it is most extreme.
In conclusion, Alan is FIRST an apologist for Israel no matter what crimes it commits: From Norman Finkelstein, we learn Alan Dershowitz at a conference in front of Prime Minister Sharon, said Israel is not bound at all by international law. He said to the crowd “Your moral obligation to comply with the letter of international law is voluntary.” Could Himmler have said that any better? Dershowitz has said yes to targeted assassinations, home destruction, needles shoved under a prisoner’s fingernail, and ethnic cleansing. Dershowitz trots out the Geneva Accords fondly ONLY when Palestinian resistance involves aggression. Alan likes to say the audience after his talks often says to him, “we didn’t know.” Norman Finkelstein has quipped, “That’s because much of what you said wasn’t true.” Dershowitz says Israel’s human right record is “generally superb”. Norman in a book goes point by point against Dershowitz and what is striking is how often Dershowitz is shown to not have facts to back his own claims up. Dershowitz had the balls to say that Rachel Corrie “threw herself in front of the bulldozer” when eyewitnesses all disagreed. Dershowitz said Edward Said believed in violence all because one time he symbolically threw a single stone at the border that hit nothing but the ground. So much for Dershowitz’s ‘evidence’. Said actually “explicitly deplored terrorist attacks directly against Israeli civilians as “morally unacceptable.” Dershowitz denounced the World Court, saying “it would be insulting to kangaroos to call it a kangaroo court.” Dershowitz without evidence “upholds the ‘legal rights’ of Jewish settlers to live anywhere in the West Bank and in Gaza.” Comedy Sidenote: Harvard actually hired Dershowitz to teach “legal ethics”; that’s like hiring Jeffrey Dahmer to teach Culinary Skills.
This book is an official Hasbara manual that would make Netanyahu, AIPAC, Michael Rapport, Jerry Seinfeld, Noa Tishby, Bill Maher and Nikki Haley and any Zionist troll wannabe, all proud. Its thesis is Israel has NEVER made a mistake, and it’s a testament to Israeli compassion that Israel lets us (unchosen lifeforms) live on the same planet as the chosen (as long as we fund them uncritically and generously.) Israel doesn’t have to follow any laws; its above the law. On the last page Alan says his book is “objective truth” while the rest of us offer only “biased lies.” He ends by saying that this book will somehow “promote peace” - perhaps by Palestinians renouncing all resistance, and desire for basic rights while getting nothing in return except a guaranteed malnourished lifetime of humiliation and insults in the land of one’s ancestors. No one will read this book unless they need to counter diehard believers in the Golden Rule, International Law, basic compassion, and the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam. Most Zionists are secular, which for me makes it so funny that attacking them could somehow be anti-Semitic. My progressive Jewish friends say, “You can’t conflate criticizing a largely secular Israel with criticizing Judaism”. One is a militarized apartheid ethnostate dependent on settler-colonialism and one is a religion CLEARLY bound to the brotherhood of man. Like oil and water, they are incompatible.
December 5, 2025
More Dershowitz Douchebaggery
Alan Dershowitz, notorious Jeffrey Epstein associate and America's loudest torture advocate, returns with yet another book in defense of the indefensible.
Much of this mercifully brief work, hastily written in response to the pro-Palestinian protests that swept the nation and world following Israel's latest bloodbath in Gaza, is the standard Zionist rigmarole. But this considerably interesting nugget from the introduction is worth examining at length:
Leaving aside the mischaracterization of the Palestinian position, this statement is notable for the honesty in the bolded sentence. Contrast it with the Jewish establishment's unified opinion about "politicide" in the Western nations they reside in as minorities:
~ Rabbi Michael Knopf, "The Jewish Case Against Donald Trump", Haaretz, 2016
~ Allison Kaplan Sommer, "Why Stephen Miller Is The Most Hated Jew In America — By Fellow Jews", Jewish Daily Forward, 2018
~ Peter Beinart, "The Real Reason So Many Republicans Love Israel? Their Own White Supremacy", Jewish Daily Forward, 2019
If that wasn't damning enough, two Jewish academics co-authored an entire book in which they insolently demand that the white Christian majority in America surrender their nationhood and stop stubbornly resisting the radical demographic changes intended on making them a subjugated minority:
This crazed insistence on radically transforming America from a nation descended from its founding Anglo-Saxon stock, with a common heritage, faith, history, and shared set of values into a hitherto unprecedented "inclusive, multiracial democracy" is suspiciously the polar opposite of what the entire Jewish political spectrum demands for Israel: unchallenged recognition as "the Jewish state", i.e. legitimizing the atrociously violent mass dispossession of 750,000+ Palestinian Arabs, and conferring Israel the right to maintain its artificially created and precarious Jewish majority for eternity through any murderous or otherwise sleazy methods it deems fit.
Demographics Are Destiny
The mirror opposite of their determination that America be changed into a majority-minority cesspool is the Jewish attitude towards the ethnic composition of the self-declared "Jewish State" that they regard as their birthright. In this matter, Jewish anxieties are elucidated in plain language in a 2016 Wall Street Journal article titled "Jewish Baby Boom Alters Israeli-Palestinian Dynamic", with the subheading reading "The jump has calmed the fears of many Israeli Jews of being outnumbered".
Alan Dershowitz, notorious Jeffrey Epstein associate and America's loudest torture advocate, returns with yet another book in defense of the indefensible.
Much of this mercifully brief work, hastily written in response to the pro-Palestinian protests that swept the nation and world following Israel's latest bloodbath in Gaza, is the standard Zionist rigmarole. But this considerably interesting nugget from the introduction is worth examining at length:
The vast majority of Israelis would love nothing more than to be able to beat their swords into plowshares and to convert their nuclear weapons into nuclear medicine. But Israel's enemies do not want peace. They want "Palestine to be free from the river to the sea," which means free of Jews, free of Israel, and free of non-Muslims. They are prepared to use "any means" to secure the result. This would require Israel to commit politicide, which its citizens will not permit it to do.
Leaving aside the mischaracterization of the Palestinian position, this statement is notable for the honesty in the bolded sentence. Contrast it with the Jewish establishment's unified opinion about "politicide" in the Western nations they reside in as minorities:
The Jewish tradition would reject Trump because of his positions. His domestic policy positions - such as building a wall to prevent Mexican immigration, deporting the roughly 11.5 million illegal immigrants currently in the country, and banning Muslim immigration - advance a stunningly cruel vision of America, where white and Christian citizens enjoy renewed and unchallenged supremacy.
~ Rabbi Michael Knopf, "The Jewish Case Against Donald Trump", Haaretz, 2016
[Stephen] Miller, on the other hand, is no mere grifter or complicit opportunist. He shocks the American-Jewish community because he comes off as a true believer - an enthusiastic and unapologetic architect of, and cheerleader for, the "zero tolerance" immigration policy that has made children suffer as white nationalists cheer.
There's a sense that, somewhere in their hearts, Jared and Ivanka [Kushner] know better. Miller, on the other hand, wholeheartedly embraces and embodies an ideology that many American Jews see as a threat to their own well-being, given that it promotes a vision of America as a white Christian nation.
~ Allison Kaplan Sommer, "Why Stephen Miller Is The Most Hated Jew In America — By Fellow Jews", Jewish Daily Forward, 2018
Rejecting [the maintenance of white Christian dominance in the face of demographic change] may spawn more white nationalist anti-Semitism. The Pittsburgh shooter loathed Jews for supporting the rights of Central American refugees...But most American Jews know in our bones that narrow, exclusive definitions of Americanism only leave us more vulnerable. By contrast, the more America welcomes Somali immigrants and Guatemalan asylum seekers not only into the country but into the political process — the more it truly becomes a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-faith liberal democracy — the safer we will be.
~ Peter Beinart, "The Real Reason So Many Republicans Love Israel? Their Own White Supremacy", Jewish Daily Forward, 2019
If that wasn't damning enough, two Jewish academics co-authored an entire book in which they insolently demand that the white Christian majority in America surrender their nationhood and stop stubbornly resisting the radical demographic changes intended on making them a subjugated minority:
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
(…)
In this revelatory book, Levitsky and Ziblatt issue an urgent call to reform our politics. It's a daunting task, but we have remade our country before—most notably, after the Civil War and during the Progressive Era. And now we are at a crossroads: America will either become a multiracial democracy or cease to be a democracy at all.
This crazed insistence on radically transforming America from a nation descended from its founding Anglo-Saxon stock, with a common heritage, faith, history, and shared set of values into a hitherto unprecedented "inclusive, multiracial democracy" is suspiciously the polar opposite of what the entire Jewish political spectrum demands for Israel: unchallenged recognition as "the Jewish state", i.e. legitimizing the atrociously violent mass dispossession of 750,000+ Palestinian Arabs, and conferring Israel the right to maintain its artificially created and precarious Jewish majority for eternity through any murderous or otherwise sleazy methods it deems fit.
Demographics Are Destiny
The mirror opposite of their determination that America be changed into a majority-minority cesspool is the Jewish attitude towards the ethnic composition of the self-declared "Jewish State" that they regard as their birthright. In this matter, Jewish anxieties are elucidated in plain language in a 2016 Wall Street Journal article titled "Jewish Baby Boom Alters Israeli-Palestinian Dynamic", with the subheading reading "The jump has calmed the fears of many Israeli Jews of being outnumbered".
JERUSALEM—Israel's peace camp and its international backers have long used one crude but powerful argument: Arabs make more babies than Jews and unless a separate Palestinian state is created, a demographic time bomb will turn Jews into a dwindling minority akin to white South Africans.
December 24, 2024
Dangerously misinformed. Makes enough factual statements to seem credible, but routinely exaggerates information, ignores contrary facts, and makes unfounded claims.
November 5, 2024
If I could, I would give 4.5 stars but since this book is so important and contains valuable information and arguments, rounding up to 5 will do.
Alan Dershowitz takes on the ten most repeated libels against Israel and the path towards peace with her Palestinian (and Arab) neighbours.
The book is aimed first and foremost at students encountering hate aimed at Israel on campus. It provides solid refutes to the top ten most shouted claims and elaborates on the background behind both the misleading claims and the real situation. I think it is rather sad that the people who need to hear this information the most will not pick up this book (as per the title and so on, the core of the problem is blatant disinformation on the side of the so-called Pro-Palestine crowd).
The ebook - or e-pamphlet, as it is rather compact - helpfully includes clickable links to the sources Dershowitz cites, making his text somewhat more transparent.
There is an issue with some of the facts Dershowitz cites, mainly that he only sparsely gives citations and the reader will need to research and verify his words independently, which makes the process more cumbersome. He also gets a few small but important details wrong: he refers to "Iran" when he means the Iranian Islamic Regime (since the Iranian people are in no way of the same mind as their dictator) and quotes a failed two-state deal in 2007 that happened in 2008, though I can understand that he took the year from the Annapolis conference, where things were still looking positive. Only in 2008 did the Palestinian leadership turn down statehood for their people.
But overall, a very concise little book with some valuable talking points. I thoroughly recommend it!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Alan Dershowitz takes on the ten most repeated libels against Israel and the path towards peace with her Palestinian (and Arab) neighbours.
The book is aimed first and foremost at students encountering hate aimed at Israel on campus. It provides solid refutes to the top ten most shouted claims and elaborates on the background behind both the misleading claims and the real situation. I think it is rather sad that the people who need to hear this information the most will not pick up this book (as per the title and so on, the core of the problem is blatant disinformation on the side of the so-called Pro-Palestine crowd).
The ebook - or e-pamphlet, as it is rather compact - helpfully includes clickable links to the sources Dershowitz cites, making his text somewhat more transparent.
There is an issue with some of the facts Dershowitz cites, mainly that he only sparsely gives citations and the reader will need to research and verify his words independently, which makes the process more cumbersome. He also gets a few small but important details wrong: he refers to "Iran" when he means the Iranian Islamic Regime (since the Iranian people are in no way of the same mind as their dictator) and quotes a failed two-state deal in 2007 that happened in 2008, though I can understand that he took the year from the Annapolis conference, where things were still looking positive. Only in 2008 did the Palestinian leadership turn down statehood for their people.
But overall, a very concise little book with some valuable talking points. I thoroughly recommend it!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
January 27, 2026
Alan Dershowitz’s The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them with Truth is a powerful, evidence-based defense of Israel, equipping readers with historical, legal, and moral arguments to counter widespread misinformation. The book goes beyond debate and presents a call to truth in the face of repeated falsehoods.
Key Themes and Insights
Shouting vs. Discussion
Dershowitz emphasizes that, especially since October 7, the discourse surrounding Israel is not genuine debate or discussion, but rather shouting, silencing, polemics, sloganeering, and hate-mongering. Protesters and activists often aim not for dialogue but for the elimination of Israel itself.
Israel’s Legitimacy and Historical Right
The Jews who settled in Israel were refugees, not colonists, fleeing persecution.
They were a people with a millennia-old attachment to the land, fulfilling a historical connection that predates modern political disputes.
The Arabs have repeatedly rejected Israeli offers for their own state, including major proposals in 1947, 1967, 2000, 2001, and 2008, contributing to ongoing tensions.
Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN Partition Plan, the Palestinian refugee problem would not exist today; instead, it has been used repeatedly as a political weapon to try to destroy Israel.
Refuting Claims of Apartheid and Genocide
Israel is not an apartheid state; it is the most ethnically and religiously diverse democracy in the Middle East, with equal rights for all citizens. By contrast, countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia ban Jews from citizenship, yet are never labeled apartheid.
Israel is not committing genocide; the majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been Hamas combatants, and Hamas deliberately endangers civilians, including children, to generate propaganda.
Claims of starvation in Gaza are false; there is no deliberate starvation by Israel.
Israel and Regional Threats
Iran is the main threat to peace in the region, with the explicit goal to violently destroy Israel at any cost.
Hamas’ tactics and the ongoing attacks from its networks further illustrate the existential threats Israel faces.
Double Standards in International Discourse
Dershowitz highlights selective outrage: the world, particularly the left, often ignores the plights of Kurds, Tibetans, Uighurs, Karen, and people in Zimbabwe and North Korea — yet vilifies Israel — because these tragedies do not involve Jews.
Why This Book Matters
Dershowitz provides not only a rebuttal to common anti-Israel narratives but also a moral framework for advocacy. By presenting facts clearly and systematically, the book equips readers to engage in informed, principled discussions rather than repeating slogans or propaganda. For anyone committed to truth and justice, especially in defending Israel, this book is an essential resource.
Strengths
Comprehensive and systematic: Each “lie” is addressed with evidence and historical context.
Clear and persuasive: Written in a way that is accessible to both lay readers and those familiar with Middle East politics.
Practical for advocacy: Provides concrete facts and framing that can be used in public discourse.
Conclusion
The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies is more than a book; it is a tool for truth in a world of misinformation. It exposes the distortion of facts, highlights the resilience and legitimacy of Israel, and provides readers with the means to defend Israel’s right to exist while countering falsehoods effectively.
Key Themes and Insights
Shouting vs. Discussion
Dershowitz emphasizes that, especially since October 7, the discourse surrounding Israel is not genuine debate or discussion, but rather shouting, silencing, polemics, sloganeering, and hate-mongering. Protesters and activists often aim not for dialogue but for the elimination of Israel itself.
Israel’s Legitimacy and Historical Right
The Jews who settled in Israel were refugees, not colonists, fleeing persecution.
They were a people with a millennia-old attachment to the land, fulfilling a historical connection that predates modern political disputes.
The Arabs have repeatedly rejected Israeli offers for their own state, including major proposals in 1947, 1967, 2000, 2001, and 2008, contributing to ongoing tensions.
Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN Partition Plan, the Palestinian refugee problem would not exist today; instead, it has been used repeatedly as a political weapon to try to destroy Israel.
Refuting Claims of Apartheid and Genocide
Israel is not an apartheid state; it is the most ethnically and religiously diverse democracy in the Middle East, with equal rights for all citizens. By contrast, countries like Jordan and Saudi Arabia ban Jews from citizenship, yet are never labeled apartheid.
Israel is not committing genocide; the majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been Hamas combatants, and Hamas deliberately endangers civilians, including children, to generate propaganda.
Claims of starvation in Gaza are false; there is no deliberate starvation by Israel.
Israel and Regional Threats
Iran is the main threat to peace in the region, with the explicit goal to violently destroy Israel at any cost.
Hamas’ tactics and the ongoing attacks from its networks further illustrate the existential threats Israel faces.
Double Standards in International Discourse
Dershowitz highlights selective outrage: the world, particularly the left, often ignores the plights of Kurds, Tibetans, Uighurs, Karen, and people in Zimbabwe and North Korea — yet vilifies Israel — because these tragedies do not involve Jews.
Why This Book Matters
Dershowitz provides not only a rebuttal to common anti-Israel narratives but also a moral framework for advocacy. By presenting facts clearly and systematically, the book equips readers to engage in informed, principled discussions rather than repeating slogans or propaganda. For anyone committed to truth and justice, especially in defending Israel, this book is an essential resource.
Strengths
Comprehensive and systematic: Each “lie” is addressed with evidence and historical context.
Clear and persuasive: Written in a way that is accessible to both lay readers and those familiar with Middle East politics.
Practical for advocacy: Provides concrete facts and framing that can be used in public discourse.
Conclusion
The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies is more than a book; it is a tool for truth in a world of misinformation. It exposes the distortion of facts, highlights the resilience and legitimacy of Israel, and provides readers with the means to defend Israel’s right to exist while countering falsehoods effectively.
October 11, 2025
5.0 Stars For what it is, this thin volume is very good. At only 64 pages, it is not intended to be a comprehensive work on this very complex topic. But it summarizes the major talking points pretty well for a two hour read and I think this can and absolutely should lead to further exploration of this topic on the part of those who pick it up as a high level summary. Again, it is NOT intended as a comprehensive volume.
If you know nothing about this topic, this would be a great place to start. If you are a Jewish person who has found themselves under antisemitic attack (as I have) but have trouble organizing your many thoughts in an effort to discuss this rationally with acquaintances on the left who might be attacking you, this volume might serve as a starter outline, which you can fill in with more facts from other sources. I’m not saying facts will do you much good (they certainly haven’t helped me!) but at least you will be able to say that you have given it your best shot. They will have to face their refusal to listen with their own god. You can only do your best. And ‘your best’ might well start with this book as an outline. Only Hashem can do more.
I would not, however, limit your learning to this slim booklet. In my opinion, your next step might be a book l read this summer by journalist Douglas Murray (On Democracies and Death Cults) which is extremely well done and hot off the press current, with further follow on by the book that this small booklet was based off of by the same author, The Case For Israel. My own next step is to read Son of Hamas, by Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father was a founder of Hamas and who is now an Israeli Christian dedicated to peace. I think that to hear from a Palestinian who literally grew up in Hamas might be very enlightening because I hope to understand why Hamas just refuses to listen to any reasonable peaceful solution, and has refused this for decades. Someone who can put this refusal into my own terms.
I also plan to read a straight up history of Israel (really, I have already done so but I plan to read another for collaboration as the real ´hard’ history here is so important), and a book by a current Palestinian belligerent. But since I’m pretty well versed on the history already, I need to find one that does more than sloganeer. Additionally, I plan to read 2 books I have about Netanyahu; one by his political opponents and one by himself. No doubt I will add others as I go.
My point is that this is a very complex topic. People study this struggle for decades and still have questions. So don’t let some kid on the street banging a drum jerk you around. Most of them could not find Gaza on a map and have no idea that the slogan they are yelling ´From the river to the sea’ is actually a call for the complete genocide of the Jewish people.
Or maybe they DO know that it’s a call for genocide. Which of course makes it much worse.
Read. Educate yourself. History. Biography. Insiders, outsiders. Books by Israelis and books by Palestinians. Books by Jews, Christians and non-extremist Muslims. Do not limit yourself to only this booklet. If you do, you are just as bad as the kids whose regurgitation of Hamas propaganda is currently the ‘in thing’, along with their H&M purchased PLO fashion headgear.
If you know nothing about this topic, this would be a great place to start. If you are a Jewish person who has found themselves under antisemitic attack (as I have) but have trouble organizing your many thoughts in an effort to discuss this rationally with acquaintances on the left who might be attacking you, this volume might serve as a starter outline, which you can fill in with more facts from other sources. I’m not saying facts will do you much good (they certainly haven’t helped me!) but at least you will be able to say that you have given it your best shot. They will have to face their refusal to listen with their own god. You can only do your best. And ‘your best’ might well start with this book as an outline. Only Hashem can do more.
I would not, however, limit your learning to this slim booklet. In my opinion, your next step might be a book l read this summer by journalist Douglas Murray (On Democracies and Death Cults) which is extremely well done and hot off the press current, with further follow on by the book that this small booklet was based off of by the same author, The Case For Israel. My own next step is to read Son of Hamas, by Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father was a founder of Hamas and who is now an Israeli Christian dedicated to peace. I think that to hear from a Palestinian who literally grew up in Hamas might be very enlightening because I hope to understand why Hamas just refuses to listen to any reasonable peaceful solution, and has refused this for decades. Someone who can put this refusal into my own terms.
I also plan to read a straight up history of Israel (really, I have already done so but I plan to read another for collaboration as the real ´hard’ history here is so important), and a book by a current Palestinian belligerent. But since I’m pretty well versed on the history already, I need to find one that does more than sloganeer. Additionally, I plan to read 2 books I have about Netanyahu; one by his political opponents and one by himself. No doubt I will add others as I go.
My point is that this is a very complex topic. People study this struggle for decades and still have questions. So don’t let some kid on the street banging a drum jerk you around. Most of them could not find Gaza on a map and have no idea that the slogan they are yelling ´From the river to the sea’ is actually a call for the complete genocide of the Jewish people.
Or maybe they DO know that it’s a call for genocide. Which of course makes it much worse.
Read. Educate yourself. History. Biography. Insiders, outsiders. Books by Israelis and books by Palestinians. Books by Jews, Christians and non-extremist Muslims. Do not limit yourself to only this booklet. If you do, you are just as bad as the kids whose regurgitation of Hamas propaganda is currently the ‘in thing’, along with their H&M purchased PLO fashion headgear.
December 5, 2024
There’s nothing new here for those who read history and know the facts. It’s a nice, little reference that you can quote from and It’s short enough to read in a couple of hours if you are willing to put down your phone and take the red pill to learn life chaining truth.
March 30, 2025
OUTSTANDING assessment of the never-ending Arab-Israeli conflict
Dershowitz delivers concise reviews of 10 major misconceptions/distortions/myths (i.e., LIES) about the ongoing Palestinian conflict with Israel. Bottom line: How can the Jewish state experience peaceful co-existence with an entity COMMITTED TO ITS EXTERMINATION? Palestinian leaders have refused multiple offers of land for peace over the decades. It is Hamas that is responsible for the deaths of so many Palestinians, used as human shields, to arouse world sympathies. What other nation than Israel has provided food & jobs to its “enemies”? (Read online commentaries by Arab Israelis who “would never choose to leave Israel to live in an Arab country!”) Like the flat-earth believers of millenia past, those who blame Israel should read the FACTS presented here to learn the realities. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.
Dershowitz delivers concise reviews of 10 major misconceptions/distortions/myths (i.e., LIES) about the ongoing Palestinian conflict with Israel. Bottom line: How can the Jewish state experience peaceful co-existence with an entity COMMITTED TO ITS EXTERMINATION? Palestinian leaders have refused multiple offers of land for peace over the decades. It is Hamas that is responsible for the deaths of so many Palestinians, used as human shields, to arouse world sympathies. What other nation than Israel has provided food & jobs to its “enemies”? (Read online commentaries by Arab Israelis who “would never choose to leave Israel to live in an Arab country!”) Like the flat-earth believers of millenia past, those who blame Israel should read the FACTS presented here to learn the realities. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.
December 20, 2024
Excellent, outstanding! Concise, clearly written. Demonstrates clear knowledge of the situation in the Middle East, especially Israel. Good grasp of history and present situations in the area. This little book is for those who are willing to think and search the fact not a follower who let’s others think for them.
April 6, 2025
perfect. didn't tell me anything i didn't know or recognize already, but it's valuable to have it stated in print.
& it's the perfect length. great that they didn't make this into a 200 page dirge. state the facts. it's as long as it needed to be.
& it's the perfect length. great that they didn't make this into a 200 page dirge. state the facts. it's as long as it needed to be.
July 26, 2025
Either
1. Well we tried via x bad faith attempt
2. Well its not the purest form of Y so it isn't Y
3. Just lying
1. Well we tried via x bad faith attempt
2. Well its not the purest form of Y so it isn't Y
3. Just lying
October 12, 2025
The Israel-Palestine conflict is the hottest of all hot-button issues, now more so than ever. Try to learn about it online, and you’ll be digging through a trash heap of biased propaganda. I’ve been meaning to sit down and learn more about this issue and its history, by reading books rather than angry slogans on social media. And rather than take on the fruitless task of looking for a totally unbiased work, I decided to read two shorter books: Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappé arguing against Israel, and The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies by Alan Dershowitz arguing in favor of it.
Each of the two books has a roughly similar premise: to lay out ten “lies” or “myths” perpetuated by the other side, and debunk them one-by-one. The two aren’t exactly symmetrical, though. Pappé’s book is longer, discusses the history more in-depth, and came out in 2017. Dershowitz’s, released in late 2024, touches on the history here and there but is mostly focused on the war that began on October 7th, 2023. I’m aware that Alan Dershowitz has written dozens of pro-Israel books, the most definitive being The Case for Israel (which I’ll get to someday). But I chose this one to start with.
Before I get to the book itself, I should probably lay my cards on the table. I knew little about this issue in the past. But on October 7th, my sympathies went sharply towards Israel. I felt that after such a horrific attack, they had every right to respond with force. I listened to certain commentators and podcasters who assured me that the IDF was the most moral army in the world. This support of mine became more and more ambivalent until, around mid-2025, I reached the breaking point. I had seen story after story of Israel blockading Gaza for months, firing tanks into crowds of hungry people, killing journalists and healthcare workers, destroying hospitals and schools, and creating a famine. The idea of supporting a government which would do such horrific things became untenable for me.
Some of you will say that Israel was doing all the same stuff since 2023, and indeed for years before then, so I’m stupid for changing my mind so late. Others of you will be furious that I’m not putting all blame solely on Hamas. I’m just giving an honest account of how my opinions have changed, that’s all.
With that, I’ll get to the actual book. Mr. Dershowitz knows how to make a convincing case. After all, he successfully defended O.J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein in court (helping win the latter his “sweetheart plea deal” back in 2008). Nevertheless, he refers to Israel as his “most challenging client” - so is his defense here successful?
Dershowitz claims at the outset that his book rests on a foundation of “indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence”. I find that he seems to rely more on rhetorical assertions, accusations of hypocrisy, and half-true narratives that leave out any facts inconvenient for his side. It doesn’t feel like he’s honestly engaging with the actual arguments of Israel’s critics. For instance, in his first chapter, wherein he argues against the idea that Israel is a colonial state, he frames the Zionists as refugees who were simply trying to escape persecution. Okay, partially true, but he leaves out the part where they forcibly expelled 750,000 people from their homes in order to cleanse the land for their new state. Which is the part people tend to take issue with.
In chapter 9, he argues that Israel isn’t preventing a two-state solution, Hamas’ control of Gaza is. He conveniently ignores Israel’s role in tacitly endorsing and empowering Hamas, specifically to derail any chance for a Palestinian state. He also points to Hezbollah’s control of Lebanon - a whole separate country, so, not sure what the Palestinians are supposed to do about it. And neither of these arguments apply to the West Bank, where neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is in control, but Israel has been slowly killing the chance of a state through its settler program. Dershowitz is curiously wishy-washy on the settlements; the line he toes is that they are “a matter of reasonable disagreement”. It’s telling that even as ardent a defender of Israel as he cannot defend them. More extreme and aggressive voices than Dershowitz’s, fueled by messianic ideology, have by far the most influence on Israel’s settler movement.
In chapter 6, he declares “There is no starvation in Gaza”. But if Gazan men, women, and children are feeling a little hungry, Dershowitz adds, they should blame Hamas for stealing food. Now, this book was published before Israel’s nearly 3-month blockade of all food, water, and medicine from Gaza, and its reduction of the number of aid sites from 400 to 4, and indeed before the IPC analysis which meticulously laid out the evidence that there is a famine in Gaza. But to his other point, even Israeli military officials admit that there is no evidence of Hamas regularly stealing aid. Food theft is happening, but mostly by roving gangs and bandits of the type that crops up when a society has totally collapsed - and Netanyahu himself has said that his government has armed and “activated” these gangs. I’m sure many people would have disputed Mr. Dershowitz’s claims at the time he wrote them, but the passage of a year has proven him definitively wrong (though I doubt he’s changed his mind). Now, I’m not saying that Hamas bears absolutely no responsibility for any of the misery in Gaza. But Dershowitz denies any responsibility on the part of Israel. He always casts Israel as the helpless victim which only acts in self-defense, and consistently shifts the blame to any other entity in the world except for Israel.
Dershowitz often accuses people of applying double standards to Israel, and there may be a point there. But Dershowitz is guilty of double standards too. Just to pick out one example of many, in chapter 5, Dershowitz flatly declares that Israel “has committed no war crimes” in Gaza. Really. None? Not even one? Then, he immediately accuses Hamas and Hezbollah of committing war crimes when they fire rockets at civilians. It’s indisputable that the IDF has targeted and killed many civilians during this war. Does the blame rest solely on Hamas for using “human shields” when a toddler gets shot twice by an Israeli sniper? Is the IDF doing “everything reasonable to minimize civilian casualties” when it uses an AI algorithm to automate the bombing of houses? Dershowitz justifies war crimes that he would recognize as such if any nation or group aside from Israel did it.
The book isn’t entirely free of good points. Chapter 2, probably the strongest in the book, was fairly well-argued. Dershowitz does a decent job painting a portrait of obstinate Arab leaders stubbornly refusing all compromise, even those heavily tilted in their favor (such as the Peel Commission partition plan). In retrospect, the Palestinian leadership should have taken those deals - any one of them would have been better than the current status quo. Of course, they had their reasons. He lands some solid hits against the Arab states. He accuses the “hard left” of focusing solely on the Palestinians and ignoring causes such as those of the Kurds, Tibetans, and Uyghurs - also stateless ethnic groups who face persecution. Fair enough. But he thinks the difference in focus can be explained solely by antisemitism. I’m not going to say that there is absolutely no antisemitism within the anti-Zionist movement. But I think the difference here can be explained mostly by 1. the drastic nature of Gaza’s destruction, 2. social media making horrific images of this destruction readily accessible, and 3. the West’s support for Israel causing Western activists to put pressure on their own governments.
In chapter 10, Dershowitz reveals the grand master-villain of his narrative: the Islamic Republic of Iran. I agree with him that Iran is controlled by a regime of fundamentalist zealots with imperialist ambitions, and that they are a force of evil in the world. I disagree with his implied conclusion that we must do a regime change operation in Iran. I think we ought to have learned something from the last 24 years of American meddling in the Middle East. And if Israel sees them as an existential threat, then let Israel deal with it. It’s not our fight.
But despite a few decent points, I get an overwhelming sense reading this book that I’m not being told the truth, or am being sold a selective, politicized version of the truth (in a very combative and indignant tone). Contrast this with Pappé’s book. Pappé’s style is much more sober and less laden with unnecessary emotional language. He’s much more willing to actually engage with the other side’s arguments. And rather than relying on assertions and whataboutisms, Pappé patiently and methodically lays out the facts, until the weight of the facts is difficult or impossible to deny. I’m only about halfway through Pappé’s book (it’s nearly 3 times the length of this one) and I haven’t agreed with every single word he’s said, but it’s clear which of the two books is more grounded in “indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence”.
Contrast that with perhaps the worst chapter in this book, chapter 4, in which Dershowitz addresses the notion of Israel as an apartheid state. He wastes a lot of time waxing poetic about just how gosh darn wonderfully Israel treats its own Arab citizens. This is a non-sequitur, because the claims of apartheid center around the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the status of Arabs in Israel proper is an entirely separate issue. It would be like arguing that there was no apartheid in South Africa because they treated East Asians relatively well. (“They were even granted the status of ‘honorary whites’! Now does that sound like something that an ‘evil racist regime’ would do?”)
Dershowitz does eventually get around to the West Bank. He doesn’t try to argue that Palestinians are treated equally. Instead, he states that because they are under military occupation, they are not entitled to the same rights as a citizen of Israel. I found this to be the most morally bankrupt argument in the book. Even if we judge the West Bank purely on its own terms as an occupied territory, it’s clear that Israeli settlers enjoy full rights and protections under the law while Palestinians do not. What is this if not discrimination? And is discrimination magically not discrimination anymore if only it’s done by an occupying military power? If we apply that logic consistently, then we should have no problem with what Germany did to the Jews in occupied Poland.
In conclusion, this book has not convinced me to support the government of Israel. If anything, I have been pushed a bit in the other direction. I gave Dershowitz’s arguments a fair hearing, at least I hope I did. But a majority of the time, I felt like I was reading propaganda, rather than an honest engagement with the truth. I plan to finish Pappé’s book and read more on this conflict, from both sides of the coin. I hope that Israel has more persuasive defenders than Alan Dershowitz.
In navigating this thorny issue, I will try to use the ideal of equality as a guiding star. I don’t support Mr. Dershowitz’s view, expressed in a Fox News debate with Cornel West, that an Israeli life is inherently more valuable than a Palestinian life. I am repulsed by the dehumanizing rhetoric toward the people of Gaza spread by Netanyahu and other high-ranking Israeli officials. At the same time, I’m repulsed by those who support Hamas or thought the October 7th attacks were worthy of celebration. I am troubled by the antisemitic tropes that too often seem to creep into some anti-Zionist rhetoric. It’s crystal clear to me that hatred of Jewish people is on the rise around the world, and my heart goes out to Jews who live in fear because of this. We are all human beings, and I reject any ideology which tries to dehumanize others.
As I write this review, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal that involves a return of the remaining hostages. There is no guarantee that this will end the war that began 2 years ago. But I am glad for this, firstly for the people of Gaza, the hostages, and their families. Secondly, because the presence of hostages remaining in Gaza was the largest obstacle to a real anti-war movement in Israel. The way I see it, Israel is at a crossroads. I know there are many Israelis who believe in democracy, freedom, equality, and peace. If they make their voices heard in the next election, there will be a chance for Israel to live up to the democratic values it claims to hold. Or, Israel could continue down the rightward trajectory it has been on for half a century, give the Kahanist zealots even more power, and make itself into even more of an international pariah.
I fear for the future of Gaza and the West Bank, and no ceasefire will erase the suffering that the people of Gaza have gone through. But I hope that in the short term, the negotiations to end the current conflict are successful. For the sake of the children.
Each of the two books has a roughly similar premise: to lay out ten “lies” or “myths” perpetuated by the other side, and debunk them one-by-one. The two aren’t exactly symmetrical, though. Pappé’s book is longer, discusses the history more in-depth, and came out in 2017. Dershowitz’s, released in late 2024, touches on the history here and there but is mostly focused on the war that began on October 7th, 2023. I’m aware that Alan Dershowitz has written dozens of pro-Israel books, the most definitive being The Case for Israel (which I’ll get to someday). But I chose this one to start with.
Before I get to the book itself, I should probably lay my cards on the table. I knew little about this issue in the past. But on October 7th, my sympathies went sharply towards Israel. I felt that after such a horrific attack, they had every right to respond with force. I listened to certain commentators and podcasters who assured me that the IDF was the most moral army in the world. This support of mine became more and more ambivalent until, around mid-2025, I reached the breaking point. I had seen story after story of Israel blockading Gaza for months, firing tanks into crowds of hungry people, killing journalists and healthcare workers, destroying hospitals and schools, and creating a famine. The idea of supporting a government which would do such horrific things became untenable for me.
Some of you will say that Israel was doing all the same stuff since 2023, and indeed for years before then, so I’m stupid for changing my mind so late. Others of you will be furious that I’m not putting all blame solely on Hamas. I’m just giving an honest account of how my opinions have changed, that’s all.
With that, I’ll get to the actual book. Mr. Dershowitz knows how to make a convincing case. After all, he successfully defended O.J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein in court (helping win the latter his “sweetheart plea deal” back in 2008). Nevertheless, he refers to Israel as his “most challenging client” - so is his defense here successful?
Dershowitz claims at the outset that his book rests on a foundation of “indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence”. I find that he seems to rely more on rhetorical assertions, accusations of hypocrisy, and half-true narratives that leave out any facts inconvenient for his side. It doesn’t feel like he’s honestly engaging with the actual arguments of Israel’s critics. For instance, in his first chapter, wherein he argues against the idea that Israel is a colonial state, he frames the Zionists as refugees who were simply trying to escape persecution. Okay, partially true, but he leaves out the part where they forcibly expelled 750,000 people from their homes in order to cleanse the land for their new state. Which is the part people tend to take issue with.
In chapter 9, he argues that Israel isn’t preventing a two-state solution, Hamas’ control of Gaza is. He conveniently ignores Israel’s role in tacitly endorsing and empowering Hamas, specifically to derail any chance for a Palestinian state. He also points to Hezbollah’s control of Lebanon - a whole separate country, so, not sure what the Palestinians are supposed to do about it. And neither of these arguments apply to the West Bank, where neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is in control, but Israel has been slowly killing the chance of a state through its settler program. Dershowitz is curiously wishy-washy on the settlements; the line he toes is that they are “a matter of reasonable disagreement”. It’s telling that even as ardent a defender of Israel as he cannot defend them. More extreme and aggressive voices than Dershowitz’s, fueled by messianic ideology, have by far the most influence on Israel’s settler movement.
In chapter 6, he declares “There is no starvation in Gaza”. But if Gazan men, women, and children are feeling a little hungry, Dershowitz adds, they should blame Hamas for stealing food. Now, this book was published before Israel’s nearly 3-month blockade of all food, water, and medicine from Gaza, and its reduction of the number of aid sites from 400 to 4, and indeed before the IPC analysis which meticulously laid out the evidence that there is a famine in Gaza. But to his other point, even Israeli military officials admit that there is no evidence of Hamas regularly stealing aid. Food theft is happening, but mostly by roving gangs and bandits of the type that crops up when a society has totally collapsed - and Netanyahu himself has said that his government has armed and “activated” these gangs. I’m sure many people would have disputed Mr. Dershowitz’s claims at the time he wrote them, but the passage of a year has proven him definitively wrong (though I doubt he’s changed his mind). Now, I’m not saying that Hamas bears absolutely no responsibility for any of the misery in Gaza. But Dershowitz denies any responsibility on the part of Israel. He always casts Israel as the helpless victim which only acts in self-defense, and consistently shifts the blame to any other entity in the world except for Israel.
Dershowitz often accuses people of applying double standards to Israel, and there may be a point there. But Dershowitz is guilty of double standards too. Just to pick out one example of many, in chapter 5, Dershowitz flatly declares that Israel “has committed no war crimes” in Gaza. Really. None? Not even one? Then, he immediately accuses Hamas and Hezbollah of committing war crimes when they fire rockets at civilians. It’s indisputable that the IDF has targeted and killed many civilians during this war. Does the blame rest solely on Hamas for using “human shields” when a toddler gets shot twice by an Israeli sniper? Is the IDF doing “everything reasonable to minimize civilian casualties” when it uses an AI algorithm to automate the bombing of houses? Dershowitz justifies war crimes that he would recognize as such if any nation or group aside from Israel did it.
The book isn’t entirely free of good points. Chapter 2, probably the strongest in the book, was fairly well-argued. Dershowitz does a decent job painting a portrait of obstinate Arab leaders stubbornly refusing all compromise, even those heavily tilted in their favor (such as the Peel Commission partition plan). In retrospect, the Palestinian leadership should have taken those deals - any one of them would have been better than the current status quo. Of course, they had their reasons. He lands some solid hits against the Arab states. He accuses the “hard left” of focusing solely on the Palestinians and ignoring causes such as those of the Kurds, Tibetans, and Uyghurs - also stateless ethnic groups who face persecution. Fair enough. But he thinks the difference in focus can be explained solely by antisemitism. I’m not going to say that there is absolutely no antisemitism within the anti-Zionist movement. But I think the difference here can be explained mostly by 1. the drastic nature of Gaza’s destruction, 2. social media making horrific images of this destruction readily accessible, and 3. the West’s support for Israel causing Western activists to put pressure on their own governments.
In chapter 10, Dershowitz reveals the grand master-villain of his narrative: the Islamic Republic of Iran. I agree with him that Iran is controlled by a regime of fundamentalist zealots with imperialist ambitions, and that they are a force of evil in the world. I disagree with his implied conclusion that we must do a regime change operation in Iran. I think we ought to have learned something from the last 24 years of American meddling in the Middle East. And if Israel sees them as an existential threat, then let Israel deal with it. It’s not our fight.
But despite a few decent points, I get an overwhelming sense reading this book that I’m not being told the truth, or am being sold a selective, politicized version of the truth (in a very combative and indignant tone). Contrast this with Pappé’s book. Pappé’s style is much more sober and less laden with unnecessary emotional language. He’s much more willing to actually engage with the other side’s arguments. And rather than relying on assertions and whataboutisms, Pappé patiently and methodically lays out the facts, until the weight of the facts is difficult or impossible to deny. I’m only about halfway through Pappé’s book (it’s nearly 3 times the length of this one) and I haven’t agreed with every single word he’s said, but it’s clear which of the two books is more grounded in “indisputable documentary, historical, and empirical evidence”.
Contrast that with perhaps the worst chapter in this book, chapter 4, in which Dershowitz addresses the notion of Israel as an apartheid state. He wastes a lot of time waxing poetic about just how gosh darn wonderfully Israel treats its own Arab citizens. This is a non-sequitur, because the claims of apartheid center around the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and the status of Arabs in Israel proper is an entirely separate issue. It would be like arguing that there was no apartheid in South Africa because they treated East Asians relatively well. (“They were even granted the status of ‘honorary whites’! Now does that sound like something that an ‘evil racist regime’ would do?”)
Dershowitz does eventually get around to the West Bank. He doesn’t try to argue that Palestinians are treated equally. Instead, he states that because they are under military occupation, they are not entitled to the same rights as a citizen of Israel. I found this to be the most morally bankrupt argument in the book. Even if we judge the West Bank purely on its own terms as an occupied territory, it’s clear that Israeli settlers enjoy full rights and protections under the law while Palestinians do not. What is this if not discrimination? And is discrimination magically not discrimination anymore if only it’s done by an occupying military power? If we apply that logic consistently, then we should have no problem with what Germany did to the Jews in occupied Poland.
In conclusion, this book has not convinced me to support the government of Israel. If anything, I have been pushed a bit in the other direction. I gave Dershowitz’s arguments a fair hearing, at least I hope I did. But a majority of the time, I felt like I was reading propaganda, rather than an honest engagement with the truth. I plan to finish Pappé’s book and read more on this conflict, from both sides of the coin. I hope that Israel has more persuasive defenders than Alan Dershowitz.
In navigating this thorny issue, I will try to use the ideal of equality as a guiding star. I don’t support Mr. Dershowitz’s view, expressed in a Fox News debate with Cornel West, that an Israeli life is inherently more valuable than a Palestinian life. I am repulsed by the dehumanizing rhetoric toward the people of Gaza spread by Netanyahu and other high-ranking Israeli officials. At the same time, I’m repulsed by those who support Hamas or thought the October 7th attacks were worthy of celebration. I am troubled by the antisemitic tropes that too often seem to creep into some anti-Zionist rhetoric. It’s crystal clear to me that hatred of Jewish people is on the rise around the world, and my heart goes out to Jews who live in fear because of this. We are all human beings, and I reject any ideology which tries to dehumanize others.
As I write this review, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire deal that involves a return of the remaining hostages. There is no guarantee that this will end the war that began 2 years ago. But I am glad for this, firstly for the people of Gaza, the hostages, and their families. Secondly, because the presence of hostages remaining in Gaza was the largest obstacle to a real anti-war movement in Israel. The way I see it, Israel is at a crossroads. I know there are many Israelis who believe in democracy, freedom, equality, and peace. If they make their voices heard in the next election, there will be a chance for Israel to live up to the democratic values it claims to hold. Or, Israel could continue down the rightward trajectory it has been on for half a century, give the Kahanist zealots even more power, and make itself into even more of an international pariah.
I fear for the future of Gaza and the West Bank, and no ceasefire will erase the suffering that the people of Gaza have gone through. But I hope that in the short term, the negotiations to end the current conflict are successful. For the sake of the children.
August 7, 2025
With only 65 pages, Alan summarizes with great accuracy such contentious and complex issues as those relating to the attacks against the Israeli people that are occurring today. He cites facts backed with sound, logical reasoning and does not shy away from highlighting the barbarism of Hamas.
I encourage everyone, especially the younger crowd, to delve deep into the Israeli-Palestine conflict. I would also encourage that they use this short yet impactful book as one of their points of research.
I encourage everyone, especially the younger crowd, to delve deep into the Israeli-Palestine conflict. I would also encourage that they use this short yet impactful book as one of their points of research.
January 18, 2026
The introduction claims this book ‘promote[s] fact based debate’ and then Dershowitz proceeds to lie, strawman, refuse citations, and even misspell (Yoav Gallant, not Gallent, Alan). Completely misinformed, and not the slightest bit convincing. Even if he weren’t defending perhaps the most dangerous rogue state we’ve seen in recent history, Dershowitz’s arguments are not sound, complete, nor thought through. This text is not only dangerous, but also plain bad.
May 16, 2025
Cherry-picking facts and details and blatantly ignoring others. At one point, contradicting itself (by first referring to the West Bank as occupied territory, and then arguing that its status as occupied is disputable in another chapter, based on what fits the author’s current argument’s needs).
Not worth being taken seriously.
Not worth being taken seriously.
July 2, 2025
definitely leaves out important information and is willing to generalize. author also clearly has no understating of how people think, or is aware and abusing that with little to no proper evidence cited.
April 15, 2025
An excellent must-read book, but I do wish that he had put in the primary sources.
November 19, 2025
You know ur on the wrong side of history when EPSTEIN'S LAWYER writes a book defending ur genocidal ethno-state
February 27, 2025
An easy read; well written explanation of Israel past, present and future
A very valuable book for anyone who wants to understand what is really happening in Israel. Please take the time to understand the facts and stand up against the lies and falsities that are rampant with regard to Israel and the Jewish people.
A very valuable book for anyone who wants to understand what is really happening in Israel. Please take the time to understand the facts and stand up against the lies and falsities that are rampant with regard to Israel and the Jewish people.
March 19, 2025
This is a great book. It is the reality that we are currently facing. The bigotry, closed mindedness, and pure hate that is currently demonstrated and accepted on college campuses and the streets of cities. I only wish that “Harvard” and “Penn” students would consider reading this book and learning history.
February 7, 2025
Outstanding
Lays out the history in a simple way . Should be required reading for all or at least for the Squad.
Lays out the history in a simple way . Should be required reading for all or at least for the Squad.
November 29, 2024
Alan Dershowitz, in this tiny book, presents an argument about the 10 Big Anti-Israel lies and it's powerful. In his introduction, he categorizes them into past, present, and future. He then presents each of the myths and rebuttals in separate chapters.
Mr. Dershowitz is very thorough with his facts and presents the political history of the disputed territory. It is clear that he is pro-Israel, but he is also balanced because he does think it would be beneficial to have a two-state system and that the surrounding Arab nations are against it.
This book was written as an informational guide about how to talk to the Pro-Palestinian protestors he feels are misinformed about the truth, in his opinion, about the Israeli-Arab conflict that came to its ultimate explosion on October 7, 2023.
Mr. Dershowitz is very thorough with his facts and presents the political history of the disputed territory. It is clear that he is pro-Israel, but he is also balanced because he does think it would be beneficial to have a two-state system and that the surrounding Arab nations are against it.
This book was written as an informational guide about how to talk to the Pro-Palestinian protestors he feels are misinformed about the truth, in his opinion, about the Israeli-Arab conflict that came to its ultimate explosion on October 7, 2023.
February 22, 2025
This had a lot of good information and his sources are well- cited, so it’s hard to argue against anything he says. It’s definitely a book I’d like to see people who are unsure how they feel about Israel read, as well as rabid anti-Israel folks. This isn’t an attack on Palestinians, it’s an attack on HAMAS, who are downright evil. People need to understand the difference between the two before they align themselves with such a dangerous group. Palestinians deserve their own land and their own government, but until they distance themselves from groups like HAMAS, they will never achieve their freedom. Israel is not the monster the media makes it out to be and this book serves up some hard hitting truths everyone needs to hear.
I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving a review of my own volition.
I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving a review of my own volition.
August 19, 2025
Read the first 10 pages, this author thinks we are idiots who can’t research for ourselves. He tells us that the Arabs rejected the 1947 UN two state solution without explaining why (they rejected this due to the unfairness in the amount of land to Jews vs Arabs in addition they felt betrayed and the Zionist settlement is a settler colony. https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/cme... ) With all this talk at the beginning to be “factual”, he is not factual at all. He goes on and on about how Israel did not do anything wrong, that is total BS.
January 13, 2026
Author Dershowitz presents many of the contentious and complex issues underlying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While the writing reflects his clear support for Israeli, he cites a number of facts and uses sound reasoning to defend Israel's right to sovereignty while criticizing Hamas and Palestinian leadership putting their own people at risk for decades. Reading this book with an open mind is critical, but it is unlikely this book will change anyone's mind who have already decided which side is at fault.
May 16, 2025
dear watermelon emoji displaying,
checkered cloth wearing,
jihad terrorist propaganda spewing,
ignorant history-denying,
false virtue signaling,
loud mouth clowns
please go visit Gaza
and fight against
democratic western
ideals hand in hand
with your alleged “victims”
see how pleased
they are to have your
1st world privileged
western values despising
butts
join their intifada
*p.s. thanks AEPI for sending this free copy*
checkered cloth wearing,
jihad terrorist propaganda spewing,
ignorant history-denying,
false virtue signaling,
loud mouth clowns
please go visit Gaza
and fight against
democratic western
ideals hand in hand
with your alleged “victims”
see how pleased
they are to have your
1st world privileged
western values despising
butts
join their intifada
*p.s. thanks AEPI for sending this free copy*
November 24, 2025
Written to offer a way to respond to the most common anti-Israel accusations. I read this after reading Brendan O'Neill's book After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation. These two novels together address the recent anti-Israel and antisemitic actions that have been proliferating since the events of October 7, 2023. It offers counter-arguments that support Israel and the Jewish people. Well-worth reading.
December 30, 2024
This compact pamphlet is a useful guide containing specific facts to refute the false claims against Israel. At a time when so many misinformed people spew lies about Israel and the current situation in Gaza, this is a great little pamphlet to refer to. Unfortunately, the people who would benefit most from it will most likely never read it.
March 18, 2025
Derschowitz makes the case for Israel in its current conflict with Hamas in this concise, well argued book targeted at younger readers (more high school and college age than actual kids). Clearly written and well argued without a single unnecessary word. Give a copy to the young person in your life who doesn't understand the situation.
September 21, 2025
Read this only if you appreciate well-documented facts. Sadly, some reviewers seem allergic to them, tossing out claims as if they were truths, the very kind of lies Alan Dershowitz works to expose and refute.
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