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To the editors:
The Crimson reports that, according to
Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, I misrepresented him
during a recent lecture at Harvard Law School on the Israel-Palestine
conflict (“At Talk, Finkelstein Calls Dershowitz Book a Fraud,” news, Nov. 4).
During
the question and answer session, I noted Dershowitz’s hostile reaction
to the courageous actions of Israeli Air Force (IAF) dissenters and his
scrambling to meet with Israeli government officials.
According to a Nov. 18, 2003 article in the Israeli
newspaper Yediot Ahronoth, after a group of reserve pilots in the
IAF declared in a public letter their refusal to
participate in future political liquidations, Dershowitz objected to
the pilots’ letter and was heading for Israel to persuade Israeli
pilots of the legality and morality of the targeted killing operations.
In addition, seeking to meet with the commanders of the IAF, he planned
to discuss with them ways of dealing with the pilots’ letter. The
newspaper detailed that Dershowitz was scheduled to meet, among others,
with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, top Foreign Ministry officials,
and Israeli public relations officials. Efforts were also made to
schedule meetings with IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz and other
commanders in the IAF.
NORMAN G. FINKELSTEIN
Chicago, Ill.
Nov. 4, 2005
The writer is a professor of political science at DePaul University.
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