Posted on 07/09/2005 7:46:40 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
In the latest chapter of a fierce academic feud, Alan M. Dershowitz, the celebrity Harvard Law School professor, tried to pressure the University of California Press not to publish a book critical of Israel that also attacked his scholarship.
The press is publishing the book despite Dershowitz's efforts, but with significant changes. The book will no longer include author Norman G. Finkelstein's claim that Dershowitz did not write, ''The Case for Israel," nor will it use the word ''plagiarize" in its argument that the Harvard law professor inappropriately borrowed from another work, according to the director of the press.
An article in the July 11 issue of the left-wing magazine The Nation asked, ''Why would a prominent First Amendment advocate take such an action?"
But Dershowitz argues that he wasn't trying to quash the book altogether, just to fight back against libel and prevent the book from getting the imprimatur of a respected publisher. ''It should be published. Let it be devastated in the marketplace, but I don't think a university press should be publishing this kind of garbage," he said in a phone interview yesterday. ''Harvard University Press would never publish trash like that."
Dershowitz sent letters, which he declined to provide to the Globe, to a variety of University of California Press officials, and even to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is an ex officio member of the University of California's board of regents.
''I told the UC press, 'If you say I didn't write the book or plagiarized it, I will own your company,' " said Dershowitz, who argued that Finkelstein's accusations are a ploy for publicity. ''The First Amendment protects mistakes that are inadvertent, but it doesn't prevent willful lies."
Finkelstein, who teaches at DePaul University in Chicago...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Ping
Touchy guy.
As Ann Coulter said so well, "We don't know for sure that the guy is guilty until Alan Dershowitz takes the case."
Alan also said, "Lawyers plagiarize all the time." I think he was talking about another Harvard Law plagiarist.
And good old Al again, about OJ. "We never said he was innocent." Smirk.
I like Dershowitz. He's a nice guy, damn smart and even if he is a bit of a tool, and a bit anal, he's better than most professors.
Professors in general are a hairsplitting, whiny, self-important group. There are many exceptions, but I am sure everyone here can think of many examples who fit the criterion I gave. If you read Dershowitz's stuff, he writes well, he's not a complete jackass (like Ward Churchill, for example), and while he's far from conservative, he's not liberal across the board, nor are his positions completely baseless. He just lives in an ivory tower, like many other professors. So most of his communication involves shouting. ;)
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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The book will no longer include author Norman G. Finkelstein's claim that Dershowitz did not write, ''The Case for Israel,"
So Finkelstein is saying it was ghost written?
'If you say I didn't write the book or plagiarized it, I will own your company.' I like the way he said this. I'm watching AD -- I think he will be a great conservative when he finally comes around. which he is in the process of doing.
Exactly my point. He's one of those old school Jewish liberals, who's a liberal because of the situation when he grew up, and who clings to the (false) hope that the Democratic party are going to stop be cowardly, untrustworthy wieners bent on appeasing the terrorists. And if you look at him across the board, he leans pretty heavily towards classic liberalism/libertarianism, with a moderate conservative view of foreign politics. Ultimately, though, we're going to have to convince him to come to the right side.
He reminds me of Bill Cosby sometimes.
Yes, I agree. Bill Cosby will HAVE to do a Zell Miller turn-about at some point if he keeps on THINKING.
I'm looking forward to it, and to Dershowitz's turnabout too.
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