Chomsky and Dershowitz: On Endless War and the End of Civil Liberties

by Howard Friel

Overview

Through the lens of a careful assessment of the political views of MIT’s Noam Chomsky and Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz—the two protagonists of a Cambridge-based feud over the past forty years—author Howard Friel chronicles an American intellectual history from the U.S. war in Vietnam in the 1960s to the contemporary debate about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Major findings reveal the consistency of Chomsky’s principled support of international law, human rights, and civil liberties, and a reversal by Dershowitz from support in the 1960s to opposition of those legal standards today. Friel’s volume argues that a Chomskyan adherence by the United States to international law and human rights would reduce the threat of terrorism and preserve civil liberties, that the Dershowitz-backed war on terrorism increases the threat of terrorism and undermines civil liberties, and that the incremental but steady transition toward a preventive state threatens the permanent suspension of civil liberties in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566569743
Publisher:	Interlink Publishing Group Inc
Publication date:	09/21/2013
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Howard Friel is author of The Lomborg Deception: Setting the Record Straight about Global Warming.

Table of Contents

Introduction(s) 7

1 Metaphors 9

2 Chomsky at Mit: 1965-1973 17

3 Dershowitz at Harvard: 1967-1973 43

Aggressive Warfare → Terrorism 71

4 Aggressive Warfare → Terrorism → Counterterrorism → Authoritarianism 73

5 On September 29, 2000 81

6 The Fourth Geneva Convention 107

Dershowitz's Case Law 123

7 Jimmy Carter and Apartheid 125

8 Richard Falk and Self-Defense 149

9 Richard Goldstone and War Crimes 171

From the Bill of Rights to Authoritarianism 207

10 Chomsky's Universalism 209

11 Dershowitz's Authoritarianism 239

12 Chomsky's Anti-Authoritarianism 267

13 On Kill Courts and Torture Warrants 289

Notes 303

Bibliography 357

Index 367

Editorial Reviews

Howard Friel presents a superb depiction of the adversarial encounter between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, two iconic figures of American intellectual life for the past many decades. Friel brilliantly assesses their contradictory political ideas and values, and their influence on our country and the world., Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice, Princeton University

Marjorie Cohn

With unfailing accuracy, Howard Friel has shown why he is nearly without peer in analyzing the ideological conflicts of the day, from the news media's coverage of war-making to climate change. Here he examines the Chomsky-Dershowitz rivalry and a myriad of important issues with the eyes if a teacher and a journalist who seeks truth., Marcus G. Raskin, co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies

Robert F. Barsky

Howard Friel has written with courage and conviction about two major figures in American intellectual life- Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz. Friel's constructive polemics provide nuance and detail that could surprise readers into re-thinking the positions they hold on crucial concerns, from the Israel-Palestine conflict and human rights to perpetual war and civil liberties., Robert F. Barsky, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, Vanderbilt University

Howard Friel's Chomsky and Dershowitz is a forensic dissection of the intellectual complicity of one American intellectual- Alan Dershowitz- and the courage and conviction of another- Noam Chomsky. The book provides a full assessment of building careers on behalf of power (Dershowitz) and askance of power (Chomsky). The test cases here are U.S. foreign policy, Israel-Palestine, international law, and civil liberties., Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College

From the Publisher

Howard Friel has drawn a fascinating contrast between the scholarship of MIT's Noam Chomsky and Harvard's Alan Dershowitz. Friel traces Dershowitz's transformation from a civil libertarian in the 1960s and 1970s to a supporter today of national ID cards, preventive detention, roving wiretaps, extra-judicial killing, and torture in extreme cases. This book is a must read for those who seek to understand some of the most critical issues of our time., Marjorie Cohn, professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild

Vijay Prashad

Howard Friel presents a superb depiction of the adversarial encounter between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, two iconic figures of American intellectual life for the past many decades. Friel brilliantly assesses their contradictory political ideas and values, and their influence on our country and the world.

Richard Falk

With unfailing accuracy, Howard Friel has shown why he is nearly without peer in analyzing the ideological conflicts of the day, from the news media's coverage of war-making to climate change. Here he examines the Chomsky-Dershowitz rivalry and a myriad of important issues with the eyes if a teacher and a journalist who seeks truth.

Marcus G. Raskin

Friel (an independent scholar) conducts a comparative exegesis of the intellectual productions of frequent antagonists Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and MIT professor Noam Chomsky on questions of international law, human rights, and civil liberties over the course of their careers. Chomsky, by far, comes off as the more principled and consistent of the two, holding to a universal morality for assessing the actions of states and maintaining an opposition to violations of human rights and civil liberties no matter who is carrying them out, while Dershowitz is found to frequently compromise his own stated commitments to human rights and civil liberties principles in an effort to excuse, justify, and/or minimize the various crimes of Israel towards the Palestinians and of the United States as it prosecutes the so-called 'War on Terror.'

Book News

02/01/2014
This work will offer the careful reader either agony or ecstasy. Those who admire Noam Chomsky will love it. Devotees of Alan Dershowitz will likely despise it. Friel (founder, Differentiated Information) clearly and—mostly—convincingly prefers Chomsky. Both Chomsky (Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, MIT) and Dershowitz (Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law Sch.) are well known to the literate public, especially to those who closely follow discussions such as these two have publicly engaged in since the Vietnam War era on America's role in the world. Friel looks at their debates chronologically. Neither Chomsky nor Dershowitz has been reluctant to discuss such issues as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war on terrorism, global conflict and international norms, and especially the post-9/11 U.S. shift toward authoritarianism. At the hands of Friel, Chomsky is the principled and persuasive scholar and activist, a man of consistent approaches, while Dershowitz is the polemicist lacking rigor in his counterterrorist jurisprudence. Yet both men seem to shrink, especially Dershowitz, to being pawns in Friel's own polemical game. VERDICT An intriguing look at two long-standing protagonists over the past four decades, best for specialists in American political thought and ideology.—Stephen Kent Shaw, Northwest Nazarene Coll., Nampa, ID

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