Chomsky and Dershowitz
- Authors
- Friel, Howard
- Publisher
- Olive Branch Press
- Tags
- politics , war
- Date
- 2013-12-28T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 1.80 MB
- Lang
- en
?Through the lens of a careful assessment of the political views of MITs Noam Chomsky and Harvards Alan Dershowitzthe two protagonists of a Cambridge-based feud over the past forty yearsauthor 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 Chomskys 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. Friels 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.