Dershowitz argues his case

Jon Weiner’s column, “Chutzpah and Free Speech” (Opinion, July 11), omits important facts.

My letter to the University of California Press was precipitated by an e-mail from Norman Finkelstein to the dean of Harvard Law School claiming Finkelstein was writing a book that “will demonstrate that he [Dershowitz] almost certainly didn’t write the book [‘The Case for Israel’], and perhaps didn’t even read it prior to publication.”

This defamatory claim was followed by Finkelstein comparing me to Adolf Eichmann and asserting that my books are churned out for me “like a Hallmark line for Nazis.”

I wrote to the UC Press, enclosing my handwritten manuscript, and I warned them that if they persisted in their claim, I would sue them for willful defamation, which is not covered under the 1st Amendment.

I also provided an assessment of Finkelstein by University of Chicago professor Peter Novick, whose work had prompted Finkelstein’s earlier book: “No facts alleged by Finkelstein should be assumed to be really facts, no quotation in his book should be assumed to be accurate.”

I never tried to stop publication of the book; I merely tried to protect myself against willful defamation.

I did say that I believed it was inappropriate for a university press to publish the bigoted falsehoods in which Finkelstein specializes, but that the book should be published. The UC Press made Finkelstein take out his false defamatory charge. I fully answer his other charges in my forthcoming book, “The Case for Peace.”

Alan Dershowitz

Cambridge, Mass.

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Dershowitz should know better. His prepublication attack will serve only to whet public interest in what is probably a cheap shot at someone who needs the publicity. The legal profession had best keep a low profile. Only the boredom of war, poverty, disease and corruption will drive readers to seek solace in the comedic lives of the self-absorbed.

Morton Kurzweil

Margate, Fla.