When it was announced in early 2004 that I would publish a study rebutting Professor Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel and documenting that extensive passages in his book had been plagiarized, Dershowitz and his attorneys entered into a protracted correspondence with my publisher (originally New Press and subsequently University of California Press) and other interested parties such as California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dershowitz has emphatically maintained that he did not seek to suppress publication of my study Beyond Chutzpah, yet he has refused to release his correspondence – indeed, falsely claiming that he had released it. Several months ago a resourceful young man named Shankar Ramamoorthy obtained much of this correspondence via a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request to the University of California Press. Readers can now judge for themselves whether the famed civil libertarian Alan Dershowitz sought to suppress publication of Beyond Chutzpah. It will be noticed that Dershowitz was particularly exercised by the appendix in my study that conclusively demonstrates his plagiarism. For example, a June 1, 2005 letter from his lawyer to University of California Press reads:

	01 September, 2005				Dershowitz to Lynne Withey (Director, UC Press)
	14 June, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	10 June, 2005				University Counsel Mary McDonald to Dershowitz Attorney
	01 June, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	13 May, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	10 May, 2005				Letter from Harvard Librarian to Dershowitz
	09 May, 2005				University Counsel Mary McDonald to Dershowitz Attorney
	19 April, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	21 March, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	21 March, 2005				Exhibit A for Letter dated March 21, 2005
	21 March, 2005				Exhibit B for Letter dated March 21, 2005
	04 March, 2005				University Counsel Mary McDonald to Dershowitz Attorney
	24 February, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to University Counsel Mary McDonald
	17 February, 2005				University Counsel Mary McDonald to Dershowitz Attorney
	10 February, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to Lynne Withey (Director, UC Press)
	10 February, 2005				Attachments for Letter dated February 10, 2005
	08 February, 2005				Letter of Resignation from UC Press Board of Directors
	15 January, 2005				Lynne Withey (Director, UC Press) to Dershowitz
	11 January, 2005				Dershowitz Attorney to Lynne Withey (Director, UC Press)
	22 December, 2004				Dershowitz to Governor Schwarzenegger
	22 December, 2004				Dershowitz to Board of Directors (UC Press)
	22 December, 2004				Preliminary Draft of Dershowitz article
	03 December, 2004				Dershowitz to Sheila Levine (Director, UC Press)
	03 December, 2004				Dershowitz to President Robert Dynes (University of California)
	19 November, 2004				Dershowitz to Niels Hooper (UC Press)
	01 July, 2004				Dershowitz to Colin Robinson (Director, New Press)
	16 June, 2004				Dershowitz to Colin Robinson (Director, New Press)
	30 April, 2004				Dershowitz to Colin Robinson (Director, New Press)
	13 April, 2004				Dershowitz to Colin Robinson (Director, New Press)

Reader letters

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:07:09 -0800
From: dcross1[at]shaw.ca
Subject: Your correspondence with New Press and UC Press
To: dersh@law.harvard.edu

Professor Dershowitz:

(as best as I can tell none of your degrees require the honorific of “Doctor”, so “Professor” will have to do.)

In regard to this web link…

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1287

I have been reading the PDF-files of your (and your legal counsel’s) correspondence with various individuals such as the legal counsel for various publishers printing Dr. Norman Finkelstein’s (Dr. Finkelstein has, in point of fact, taken a doctorate, so the honorific is appropriate for him) book.

I find it singularly curious that your legal counsel used what I might term borderline unprofessional and bullying language, expostulating for several pages on issues that seem designed to commit character assassination of Dr. Finkelstein. One can only assume that the motivation for doing this was to cause the publisher to refuse to print the book, contrary to your claims that you did not attempt to prevent its publication. Clearly, if you wanted certain portions redacted from the book you would have asked to see the galleys, rather than attempt wholesale non-publication.

Furthermore, I observe that you send rather… interesting… correspondence via your Blackberry. Tell me, Professor Dershowitz, does an accomplished lawyer such as yourself really type like a 15-year-old trying on leetspeak for the first time? I can cite such examples as “Thanks for your email which i plan to include in a book of antisemitic mail i have recieved. You will be glad to know that peocedes will go to pro israel causes. Thanks for your contribution to israel”, or “I did not and do not believe that an academic press should publish advocacy propoganda. Nor should they publish false and defamatory material. By the way the uc press did make f cut some of the flse and defamatory matter but u wouldnt know that from f”

The shorthand I see used in your e-mail would seem more appropriate to slang-type text messaging than potentially republishable correspondence from an individual such as yourself. ‘propoganda’ and ‘peocedes’, indeed.

Finally, that nearing up about “collecting anti-Semitic e-mails” can only be construed as a threat to harm someone’s career with accusations of that sort. That might have worked 20 years ago, when anyone promoting even a mildly pro-Palestinian viewpoint could be shut up effectively with it. Today, nobody believes it anymore when you accuse someone of anti-Semitism.

You have cried ‘wolf’ one too many times, Professor Dershowitz.

Regards,
David Cross

* * * * *

Dr. Finkelstein:

I read the Dershowitz’s correspondence at your site. The man who is a distinguished professor and is supposedly teaching honesty and integrity to his students, who are going to be the future lawyers of this country, is a plagiarist and liar. I was astonished and appalled to read the letters to find out what a criminal mind this law professor has. I am glad that the truth came out. I recommend you sending a copy of the correspondence to the Harvard Law faculty.

Sincerely, Mike Benny, MD

* * * * *

Dear Professor Dershowitz,

I e-mailed you many months ago now asking you to release your friendly scribblings to Governor Terminator et al. (and what an et al. it is!!) regarding the then-pending publication of Professor Norman Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah. I was stirred to write to you because you had inaccurately claimed to have already released the letters.

In my e-mail to you, I implied that a copy of your book The Case For Israel was situated near my toilet (a location of great prestige, you will agree) for use as emergency toilet paper. I also indicated to you my personal assessment of the level of destruction that you had suffered at the hands of Professors Finkelstein and Chomsky in your debates with them.

Before outlining why you have been rendered mere laughing stock, I would like to briefly expand on how I arrived at my assessment of your destruction.

Regarding the Chomsky-Dershowitz encounter of 2005, I liked the way Chomsky laughed in your face at the end of it. I refer to the point when you had to face the reality that you had suffered a real mauling and had so resorted to try to save a bit of face by saying to Chomsky that, “You are an extremely important person, a lot turns on you.” As I think I have already mentioned, Chomsky just laughed straight in your face; he and everyone else knew that you had been utterly devastated. Your total nonsense about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been completely obliterated - in full public view - into trillions of tiny pieces. No amount of last-ditch sycophancy was going to change that.

As for the Finkelstein-Dershowitz encounter of 2003, I absolutely loved the way Finkelstein said, “Footnote ten, footnote eleven, footnote twelve, footnote thirteen, footnote fourteen, footnote fifteen, footnote sixteen” straight to your face. He did this so as to indicate to you - straight to your face - that he knew the astonishing levels of your shameless plagiarism inside-out. And so, again, your total nonsense about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had been completely obliterated - in full public view - into trillions of tiny pieces.

All this said, once I had sent my e-mail, I felt that I had been unfair to you. From the tone of the e-mail you could tell that I had, in my heart, assumed you guilty until proven innocent. While this is an easy slip-up to make when dealing with your version of any given event regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I feel no vindication in informing you that all the world can now see irrefutable proof on Professor Finkelstein’s website, your very own words in fact, showing that you are an as-yet-unapologetic liar.

Vindication not withstanding, I do take some comfort in the fact that there are still a few pages of your book unused.

I really hope you can make the Oxford Union debate with Finkelstein early next year.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Barker

London, England

P.S. Thanks for the stock of laughter.

P.P.S. I got no response to my e-mail to you last year. This upset me greatly, since other people had the honour of receiving barely-decipherable insults from you via Blackberry. Please could send me a rude response this time?

P.P.P.S. Please can you also feature my e-mails in your promised Compilation Of ‘Anti-Semitic’ Correspondence Received By The Dersh? You stated to another correspondent that anyone featured in the book would be putting ‘peocedes’ into Abe Foxman’s wallet. Aside from this privilege, appearing in a book like Compilation would rule as it will surely be a best-seller, especially with those Goldhagen, Wiesel & Co. concoctions on the back cover etc.

P.P.P.P.S. While I have no fear from being painted with your anti-Semitism brush, indeed I would take a certain satisfaction in being accused of anti-Semitism by you and the rest of the so-called pro-Israel types, others might be more easily intimidated. For example, you threatened a Gary Keenan, a man who is obviously not anti-Semitic, with appearing in your book. While Mr. Keenan is clearly well acquainted with the conflict, and so happily laughed off your threat, someone less familiar with the ins and outs of it (and the mud-slinging that goes with it) might be very hurt and concerned about someone like you, a professor at Harvard, accusing them of anti-Semitism. No matter, decent people will continue to act against Israel’s appalling human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, irrespective of how hurtful and mendacious the accusations made against them in response.

* * * * *

After reading all your correspondence to the UC Press, there’s only one conclusion:

You, sir, are a disgrace to academia worldwide.

This sums it up best:

In a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described Bernays and Ivy Lee as “professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism and self-interest.”

He could have been talking about you.

What a shame.

* * * * *

Dear Alan Dershowitz

I have now had the opportunity to study in detail all the correspondence between you and the New Press; you and Governor Schwarzenegger, and you and your lawyer and the UC Press and UC Counsel.

I think it is pretty clear to any reasonable person of average intelligence (albeit persons with a mountain of energy, stamina and stomach for the sublime and bizarre) that you have committed an enormous falsehood in claiming not to have attempted to prevent publication of Beyond Chutzpah.

Beyond Chutzpah - a book (a copy of which I am still attempting to purchase for myself since there is barely a copy to be had in the UK so many have been sold) I should say that, having read mostly by begging to borrow copies of others, is one of the most eye-opening pieces of literature I have ever encountered.

I can certainly see why you attempted to prevent its publication and, for your failure, I am truly thankful.

I also want to thank you, Mr Dershowitz, for enlightening me even more fully as to the true nature of you as a person.

If you weren’t, still, so dangerous I would have some pity for you, since in the eyes of millions of people you are now more of a laughing stock, more of an academic fraud than you ever were previously to a much smaller number.

Yours

Martin Brewster

Alan Dershowitz wrote:

I did not try to prevent publication of f’s drivel. In fact i said i hoped it would be published by the kind of publishing house that specialzes in hate literature. I did not and do not believe that an academic press should publish advocacy propoganda. Nor should they publish false and defamatory material. By the way the uc press did make f cut some of the flse and defamatory matter but u wouldnt know that from f

Dear Alan Dershowitz

Thank you for your reply.

It seems your Harvard University colleague, Sara Roy and your esteemed academic colleagues Professors Raul Hilberg, Avi Schlaim, Baruch Kimmerling and Daniel Boyarin not only took the opposite view to you, but were happy to say so in print on the cover of Beyond Chutzpah.

In addition, many other esteemed Professors have, in other publications, made their praise of Norman Finkelstein’s ‘outstanding scholarship’, ‘research excellence’, ‘unrivalled attention to detail and corroboration’, ‘integrity that sometimes goes beyond the bounds of others’ - very clear.

In every institution he has taught at - where he has been shown by documented proof to have been forced to leave because of the intervention of you, and others like you, who object to the conclusions of his academic work on political and ideological grounds and *never* through any proven issue of scholarship - Norman Finklelstein has not only achieved positive student assessments that 80%+ of academics like yourself can only *dream* of, but has received those assessments with a singular thread running through them attesting to his almost ‘disciplinarian’ insistence to students on the critical importance of truth and facts in academic study, and indeed all aspects of life.

Your counsel constantly threatened UCP with court action throughout our and their tiresome correspondence - but all to no avail.

You were still accused and proved to have breached commonly accepted nd formal codes of citation in your own ‘academic’ work ‘Case for Israel’ (and it is doubtful whether any reputable non-aligned academic speaking privately would accord your works the terms ‘academic’ or ’scholarly’) and it is clear to all that you are a plagiarist by your name on the authorship title, whether you actually personally penned that book or not.

Since your threats of legal action against UCP have never materialised, one assumes that as everyone else believes the book’s contents are true, you must also believe the same or you would make good on your threat.

Making quite disgraceful threats and using blackmail against a 20 something President of a University Debating Society is one thing - taking on the weight of a top-rated University Publishing house and 1000s of esteemed academics the world over is another.

Best wishes Alan, your time is running out!

Martin Brewster

* * * * *

From: garydkeenan[at]yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:10:21
To: Alan Dershowitz dersh@law.harvard.edu
Subject: Dersh’s “smoking gun”

Professor Dershowitz

While your plagiarism and poor scholarship regarding the Israel-Palestinian/Arab conflict are common knowledge, I am truly shocked to see definitive proof

(http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/img/features/
dershletters/letters/12-22-2004_LetterToGov.pdf)

that contrary to your assertions, you did attempt to pressure Governor Schwarzenegger to suppress the publication of Professor Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah. For your own sake, I respectfully urge you to issue a full and public apology to Professor Finkelstein immediately.

Sincerely,
G.K.

Alan Dershowitz dersh@law.harvard.edu wrote:

I dont appolgize to lying bigots for telling the truth. Peddle yoiur hate elsewhere

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

From: garydkeenan[at]yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:43:35
To:dersh@law.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: Dersh’s “smoking gun”

Hi again Professor Dershowitz

Testy, testy. I am forced to respond in kind: You, sir are the “lying bigot.” Have you no shame? You seem unable to grasp the fact that you have been outed publicly as a liar. I again respectfully suggest that you cover your losses and apologize to Professor Finkelstein forthwith. If you don’t, your reputation will continue its downward slide at an accelerated rate. This most recent revelation regarding your duplicity is going to be a “hot topic” in universities throughout the US and elsewhere. Do the smart thing, the right thing. I’m certain Professor Finkelstein will be most gracious.

Sincerely,
G.K.

Alan Dershowitz dersh@law.harvard.edu wrote:

Thanks for your email which i plan to include in a book of antisemitic mail i have recieved. You will be glad to know that peocedes will go to pro israel causes. Thanks for your contribution to israel

Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:32:22 -0700
From: garydkeenan[at]yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Dersh’s “smoking gun”
To: dersh[at]law.harvard.edu

Hello again Professor Dershowitz

What a pathetic response. I confess that I expected more of you, not the meaningless, utterly predictable accusation of desperate pro-Israel nutbar zealots who only denigrate the true meaning of “anti-semitic.” I realize, of course, that you have been under great pressure due to your litany of lies regarding Professor Finkelstein and other matters that have had a devastating impact on your reputation. One more time, swallow your pride, issue a public apology to the good professor. Apart from being a brilliant and highly acclaimed scholar, he is an honest man and a true humanitarian. Confession is good for the soul.

Sincerely,
G.K.