Alan Dershowitz says it was all a misunderstanding.
The outspoken Harvard Law School professor has told the Forward that he didn’t intend to call the lead author of the controversial Goldstone Report a moser, a Jew who informs on other Jews, in a recent interview on Israel Army Radio.
Indeed, Dershowitz, who graduated from a Jewish elementary school and high school, says that he does not even know the meaning of the word — a term from Jewish religious law that the assassin of Yitzhak Rabin cited to describe why the Israeli leader deserved to die.
Instead, Dershowitz claims that he thought he was telling his interviewer that the South African jurist was “absolutely” a “monster.”
Dershowitz’s harsh criticisms of former South African Supreme Court Justice Richard Goldstone made news in Israel after selections of the interview were aired on the popular morning news program “Ma Boer” (“What’s Burning?”) on January 31. After calling Goldstone “an evil, evil man” and “an absolute traitor” for his role in a United Nations report charging that Israel’s military deliberately targeted civilians, Dershowitz now claims to have stepped back from some of those comments.
“I wrote to the broadcaster, retracting my word ‘traitor,’” Dershowitz told the Forward. “But if you’re asking me deep in my heart and soul do I believe that the word fairly characterizes him, in light of the way he’s used his Jewishness, both as a shield and a sword? You know, if the shoe fits.”
Goldstone declined to comment for this story.
Dershowitz’s comments came in the midst of a new offensive by Israeli politicians against Goldstone and the report issued by the U.N. committee he chaired. Also on January 31, Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni said that the Goldstone Report was “born in sin.” The previous week, Information Minister Yuli Edelstein called the report “antisemitic.”
In the Israeli Army Radio segment “Ma Boer,” host Razi Barkai asked Dershowitz regarding Goldstone, “Do you hint, professor, that he is a moser, someone who betrays his own people?”
“Absolutely,” Dershowitz responded.
The term moser entered the 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.
“After the assassination, when Amir was interviewed [by] the police and he mentioned the term moser, people tried to find out what it is,” said Michael Karpin, an Israeli journalist and the author of a book on Rabin’s assassination, titled “Murder in the Name of God.” “Nobody used it here before the assassination.”
What they found was a halachic ruling against those who betrayed Jews to non-Jewish authorities. “A moser was an individual who reports another Jew to the secular authorities,” said Yosef Blau, the mashgiach ruchani, or spiritual guidance counselor, at Yeshiva University’s rabbinical seminary. “In the context of much of Jewish history, it meant someone who was basically traitorous, and who was trying to gain favor in the eyes of the rest of the world by turning other Jews in.”
In some cases, Jewish law calls for a moser to be put to death.
“A moser can become a capital crime if he makes a business of it,” said Moshe Tendler, a rosh yeshiva, or dean, at Y.U.’s seminary. “You have a fellow who is basically an animal of prey — he’s preying upon the society for his own benefit. That fellow has to be dispatched with.” Tendler added, “It doesn’t apply in our modern times.” He rejected the notion that the term applied to Goldstone in any case.
For Karpin, the Rabin precedent attaches a level of danger to the designation of Goldstone as a moser. “Somebody [in Israel] or in the States could understand it as if he was ordered, or he got permission to do something against Goldstone,” Karpin said.
But of course, Dershowitz is no rabbi. And that, Blau stressed, makes a difference. Among lay people, he said, the term can carry a colloquial meaning that’s far from a rabbinic decree. “It’s usually said more rhetorically. It depends who would say it,” Blau said. “If Alan Dershowitz would say it, he’s certainly not saying, okay, somebody go out and kill him.” On the other hand, Blau said, “If it came from some right-wing rabbi in Israel, say from the heads of yeshiva Od Yosef Chai” — a radical settler yeshiva in the West Bank — “then it would be taken much more seriously.”
Dershowitz claims that the audio clip is based on a miscommunication. According to Dershowitz, when Barkai asked if he thought Goldstein was a moser, he misheard him: “I thought he said ‘monster.’ And I didn’t say yes, because I wouldn’t ever characterize anybody as a monster.” Dershowitz says that Barkai asked him the question multiple times, and only after Barkai added the explanatory phrase “someone who betrays his own people” did Dershowitz answer in the affirmative.
Dershowitz says that he stands by the claim that Goldstone betrayed his people. But he said, “To this day, I don’t know what moser means.”
“Moser was a term that was certainly used. He must have heard it as a child,” said Blau, who grew up with Dershowitz and attended religious elementary and high schools with him. “I don’t recall it coming up in the schools we went to, but it certainly was out there.”
Later in the Israel Army Radio interview, Dershowitz referred to a section of the weekday Amidah that curses traitors. He said that it referred to Goldstone. “I would say that there’s a prayer for people like him that is said every day: Lamalshinim al tehi tikva [For those who slander there should be no hope],” Dershowitz told the interviewer.
According to the ArtScroll Siddur, the text continues, “…and may all wickedness perish in an instant and may all Your enemies be cut down speedily. May You speedily uproot, smash, cast down and humble the wanton sinners speedily in our days. Blessed art Thou… who breaks enemies and humbles wanton sinners.”
In his interview with the Forward, Dershowitz said that he understood the quote he cited to mean that “people who use their credibility as Jews and their words to destroy the Jewish people shall not have any hope in the world to come. It has nothing to do with here on earth. And since I don’t believe in the world to come, it’s an empty threat.
“I do not want any harm to come to Richard Goldstone,” Dershowitz said. “I want him to be responded to in the marketplace of ideas.”
Contact Josh Nathan-Kaszis at nathankazis@forward.com
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The word "moser" is not an obscure rabbinical term but is used in everyday Yiddish as well as Hebrew and means "informer" from Hebrew LMSOR- to transmit, give over -in other words a "stoolie","rat-fink",- aterm which fits Mr.Goldstone to a "tee"- as well many other "liberal" Jews in NGO's are eligible for the conotation- I think Prof Dershowitz was aware of the meaning but did not want to resort to namecalling to a professional colleague. Your correspondent however is confusing "moser" with "rodef" a term with which Rabin was branded ith by extremist circles and means a "tyrant or persecuter".Perhaps your correspondent should have consulted with your resident expert "Philologos"
Judaism is incidental to Dershowitz' worship of Zionism. It's high-time for the Jewish people to realize they've been duped by this ideology of fear and self-interest. It is a true Golden Calf.
Richard Goldstone has repeatedly declined to debate me on the merits of the report. Nor has he responded to my 49 page substantive critique, which is available online at www.alandershowitz.com/goldstone.pdf. Instead, Goldstone has generally responded to critics of his report by pointing to his Jewishness, his Zionism, and his connections to Hebrew University. That is an argument by ethnic identity, namely that an anti-Israel argument is made stronger if offered by a Jew. It is a variation on the classic argument ad hominem. See my post, “Arguments “Ad Hominem” and “By Ethnic Identity” in Defense of Goldstone Report (www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/ad-hominem-attack-on-isra_b_298681.html).
It is precisely because Goldstone has so frequently invoked his Jewishness to attack the Jewish state that I stand by what I said to the IDF radio, namely that he is “someone who betrays his own people.” I did not repeat, nor did I understand, the Hebrew word used by the man who interviewed me in English over the telephone. I thought he used the English word “monster,” rather than the Hebrew word “moser.” (Rabbi Yosef Blau suggests that I might have learned the word moser in the Yeshiva we both attended, but he didn’t tell your reporter what a terrible Yeshiva student I was!) I certainly did not mean to imply that any physical harm should come to Goldstone. That is why I retracted the term “traitor,” which carries a somewhat different connotation in Israel than in the United States, even though I think its meaning suits him perfectly. (The headline of the Forward story, quoting me as saying “moser”? I meant “monster!” is entirely made up. I never used those quoted words. I told your reporter that I answered “absolutely” to the question, “do I believe Goldstone is someone who betrays his own people.” I also told him that I would never use the word “monster” since it refers to a person’s inherent nature without regard to his words or actions. Moreover, the photograph accompanying the story suggests that it somehow relates to the Goldstone matter. It is actually a photograph of me being removed by Swiss police as I tried to challenge Iranian President, Ahmadinejad about his Holocaust denial.)
Goldstone’s report should be rejected on its numerous demerits. The added fact that it was authored by a Jew, who was selected precisely because he is a Jew, should not increase its credibility. I will promise not to make any ad hominem arguments against the report if he stops making ad hominem arguments in its favor., Or as Adlai Stevenson once promised a political opponent: “If you stop lying about me, I will stop telling the truth about you.”
Alan Dershowitz
Dershowitz says, above, that Goldstone defends himself by reference to his Judaism; however, I saw an interview of Goldstone on Bill Moyers' show, and his defense of his report was perfectly competent, without resort to any apologetics based on his Judaism. Dershowitz omits to adduce any examples of how Goldstone defends his report in this way. Also, they say that generally someone who has talked himself hoarse has lost the argument, as seems to be the case with Dershowitz in his post on the "moser" issue. Finally, we've seen Dershowitz do this number before on Norman Finkelstein. His self-styling as a Defender of the Jewish State seems a kind of overcompensation for some other, unstated issue that is unresolved, and it is hard for me not to believe that his entire career is a performance in bad faith.
I greatly respect Alan Dershowitz and agree with his positions vis-a-vis Goldstone. What I see missing here is - in my estimation - the very real scenario under which the UN "Human Rights Commission" duped Goldstone precisely because he is a JEW.
This is the same scenario that played out during the Rosenberg Treason Trial in the early 1950s in the US. A Jewish Judge presided over the affair, ostensibly to elevate the process above reproach and add respectibility. Then the death sentence was handed down and carried out.
Actually, I pity Judge Goldstone. He was USED by the UN Human Rights Commission ("UNHRC"). Speaking of which, UNHRC is truly a magnificent OXYMORON!
I glad to hear Judge Goldstone refused to "debate" Dershowitz.
Dershowits is a serial plagiarist, who, as Norman Finkelstein proved beyond reasonable doubt, "writes" books he himself doesn't know what's written in them, and while other plagiarists seek to adorn themselves with the words of their betters, Dershowitz is probably the first person ever to have plagiarized a worthless hoax, Joan Peter's totally fake "From Times Immemoral", a book with the level of scholarship of the Protocols.
He is also a serial liar, whose lies about Palestinians (including that they, for example, are responsible for the holocaust) are written in both the spirit of hatred and the pseudo-historical method of Nazis and neo-Nazis who blame Jews for WW-1, and for "declaring war on Germany."
Dershowitz can't stop lying, and even his contribution above is a pack of lies, as someone has already noted in the comments. He has no sense of integrity and no respect for truth. There is nothing a decent person would want to debate with Dershowitz, whom Shulamit Aloni, former Israeli Education Minister and founder of the Israeli civil rights association rightly called "a despicable person". Standing on the same podium with such a lier is debasing.
Nice choice of photograph to headline the article. That one picture says more than a thousand words in illustrating the disgusting Liberal Left position on ALL things relating to Israeli culture and defense matters which the Forward shares with its fellow traveler, Goldstone.
Shorter Dersh:
He started it!
alan don't apologize for a truthful epithet
Im a bit confused: Isent Dershowitz argument basicaly anti-semitism in reverse? Calling Goldstone a "traitor to his people" seems to me to imply several classic anti-semitic points: * That Goldstone should feel that loyalty to "his people" should override his loyalty to his homenation (South Africa) and his employer (the UN). * That the Jewish people is synonymous with Israel. Betraying Israel is betraying his people. * That loyalty to his people should force him to lie rather than tell the truth as he sees it.
That sure seems a awful lot like the dual-loyalty charges so often dismissed as anti-semitism.
Goldstone has debated and written letters in response to various people and organizations, I have yet to see him use the Jewish card though, guess I will just have to take Dershowitz's word for it.
http://www.onejerusalem.org/2009/11/dore-gold-debates-goldstone-at.php
http://www.aaper.org/site/c.quIXL8MPJpE/b.5571053/k.A832/Justice_Goldstones_Letter_to_Congress.htm
I don't think Goldstone would bother debating someone who desperately tries to tell his little stories in comments sections on news sites. Can you imagine Goldstone posting in these comment sections? Really, grow up Alan.
Free market place of ideas? Does that free market place include the part where you call the governor of a state to ban a book that challenge your empty and hollow scholarship? You're a fraud. You're career is a fraud. You're case is a fraud. And that's why Goldstone won't debate you, for the same reason he wouldn't have a debate with Krusty the Clown about the Middle East.