Can you complain about a double standard if you’re practicing one?

Alan Dershowitz protests the double standard by which America and Britain carry out and congratulate themselves over the success of their targeted killings of terrorists, but condemn Israel when she does the same:

As the civilized world justly celebrates the long overdue killing of Abu M Zarqawi, it must recall that his death was brought about by what has come to be known as “targeted assassination” or “targeted killings.” This is the same technique that has been repeatedly condemned by the international community when Israel has employed it against terrorists who have murdered innocent Jews.

It seems like an unanswerable argument. But wait, there is an answer. Dershowitz thinks it’s wrong to judge different nations and peoples by different standards, right? Why, then, does he urge Jews to act with fierce ethnic solidarity to maintain their position vis à vis other peoples, yet he condemns as “evil men” the leaders of the former Anglo-Saxon America (for example, the presidents of Harvard in the early 20th century) who sought to limit the number of Jews admitted to Harvard? They were acting to preserve their historic culture, which is exactly what Dershowitz wants Jews to do; indeed he wants Jews to do advance their cultural and political claims against gentiles in the most in-your-face way possible, an attitude he lauds as “chutzpah.” But if members of other ethnic groups do basically the same thing (though without the chutzpah, of course), they are evil men whose names should be effaced from Harvard buildings and whose statues should be removed from Harvard Yard.

Does Dershowitz have the right to denounce the use of a double standard against Israel, when he employs one against Anglo-Saxon Americans?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 14, 2006 12:48 AM | Send