Alan Dershowitz on deck

In a column for the New York Sun, Alan Dershowitz discusses his challenge to the Mearsheimer/Walt’s execrable “Israel Lobby” paper: “High stakes at Harvard.” The Boston Globe reports that Dershowitz’s request to post a response to the paper on the Kennedy School site has resulted in the adoption of a new policy: “Harvard dean opens faculty papers to rebuttal.” On the subjects of Israel, American foreign policy, and the other issues on which Mearsheimer and Walt touch in their paper, Dershowitz is more or less an inspired amateur. Although Mearsheimer and Walt seem to me to make mistakes reflecting their own amateurishness, animus and partiality — such as referring to the 1948 Arab war of extermination on Israel only as an “opportunity” on which Israel allegedlly seized — I wonder if there isn’t anyone on the faculty with a professional interest in the subjects who would like to step up to the plate and give the Mearsheimer/Walt paper the whack it deserves.

The good folks at CAMERA have posted an interesting piece on Mearsheimer: “Will the real John Mearsheimer please stand up?” The allusion to the old “What’s My Line?” television show seems apposite in more ways than one.

UPDATE: I knew I was at risk on this point and should have hedged. Freelance copywriter Bruce Goldman writes:

“Will the real John Mearsheimer please stand up?” alludes not to the old “What’s My Line?” television show but to the slightly less old “To Tell the Truth,” from the same producers (Goodson-Todman). In it, three contests purported to be the same person, and two of them were imposters. When the panel finished guessing who was who, the moderator asked the question, after some false starts for suspense the real person stood up, and finally the other two contestants revealed who they really were.

Now I remember it, along with such other Goodson-Todman gems as “Beat the Clock,” “Match Word” and “I’ve Got a Secret.”

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