Alan Dershowitz: Irresponsibility from Israeli and American Jewish Media
It all began with an innocent enough request for an interview about the Goldstone report and my 49-page response to it. (www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf )
The Israeli Army radio station asked to interview me. The interview was conducted by an experienced host, Razi Barkai. Unbeknownst to me, Barkai had an agenda. He wanted to get me to say that I thought that Goldstone was a "moser." He wanted me to use this Hebrew word, whose meaning I did not understand, because in Israel, this obscure theological term has taken on a meaning of its own. According to The Forward, "the term moser entered Israeli political discourse in 1995 in the wake of Rabin's assassination by radical settler supporter Yigal Amir, when Amir cited some rabbis' designation of Rabin as a moser as part of his justification for carrying out the murder." The Forward quoted Michael Karpin, an Israeli journalist and the author of a book on Rabin's assassination, as follows: "After the assassination, when Amir was interviewed by the police and he mentioned the term moser, people tried to find out what it is...Nobody used it here before the assassination."
Unfortunately, I was totally unfamiliar with the "inside baseball" -- or in this case "inside Israel" -- use of this esoteric term.
Several times during the interview, Barkai tried to get me to agree that Goldstone was a moser, a word he pronounced with a thick accent. Since the interview was being conducted in English, I thought he was asking me to agree with him that Goldstone was a "monster." I would never use the term "monster" since it suggests an inherent, even genetic, flaw in a person, without regard to what he has said or done. I was clear throughout my interview that I believed that Goldstone had exploited his Jewishness to lend illegitimate credibility to a false report. (See this post.) In this respect, he had betrayed his people and deserved to be condemned in the marketplace of ideas. Accordingly, when Barkai asked me the following question, "Do you hint, Professor, that he is a moser, someone who betrays his own people?" I focused on the part of the question I understood. Believing that he is someone who betrays his own people, I answered the question in the affirmative. Barkai had sprung the trap. Now he had me. He could send out press releases indicating that I had called Goldstone a moser, even though I never used the word and had no idea what it meant.
The story spread quickly around the world, and I was condemned, largely by the extreme left, for advocating Goldstone's murder. As soon as I heard this, I immediately demanded a clarification from Barkai, which he ran on the air. I repeatedly emphasized, in subsequent interviews, that "I certainly did not mean to imply that any physical harm should come to Goldstone." But this didn't stop the incitement by those in the media more interested in sensationalism than truth.
The Israeli Army radio station asked to interview me. The interview was conducted by an experienced host, Razi Barkai. Unbeknownst to me, Barkai had an agenda. He wanted to get me to say that I thought that Goldstone was a "moser." He wanted me to use this Hebrew word, whose meaning I did not understand, because in Israel, this obscure theological term has taken on a meaning of its own. According to The Forward, "the term moser entered Israeli political discourse in 1995 in the wake of Rabin's assassination by radical settler supporter Yigal Amir, when Amir cited some rabbis' designation of Rabin as a moser as part of his justification for carrying out the murder." The Forward quoted Michael Karpin, an Israeli journalist and the author of a book on Rabin's assassination, as follows: "After the assassination, when Amir was interviewed by the police and he mentioned the term moser, people tried to find out what it is...Nobody used it here before the assassination."
Unfortunately, I was totally unfamiliar with the "inside baseball" -- or in this case "inside Israel" -- use of this esoteric term.
Several times during the interview, Barkai tried to get me to agree that Goldstone was a moser, a word he pronounced with a thick accent. Since the interview was being conducted in English, I thought he was asking me to agree with him that Goldstone was a "monster." I would never use the term "monster" since it suggests an inherent, even genetic, flaw in a person, without regard to what he has said or done. I was clear throughout my interview that I believed that Goldstone had exploited his Jewishness to lend illegitimate credibility to a false report. (See this post.) In this respect, he had betrayed his people and deserved to be condemned in the marketplace of ideas. Accordingly, when Barkai asked me the following question, "Do you hint, Professor, that he is a moser, someone who betrays his own people?" I focused on the part of the question I understood. Believing that he is someone who betrays his own people, I answered the question in the affirmative. Barkai had sprung the trap. Now he had me. He could send out press releases indicating that I had called Goldstone a moser, even though I never used the word and had no idea what it meant.
The story spread quickly around the world, and I was condemned, largely by the extreme left, for advocating Goldstone's murder. As soon as I heard this, I immediately demanded a clarification from Barkai, which he ran on the air. I repeatedly emphasized, in subsequent interviews, that "I certainly did not mean to imply that any physical harm should come to Goldstone." But this didn't stop the incitement by those in the media more interested in sensationalism than truth.
Read More: Huffington Post
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