If Israel is getting too much attention you could argue that this is too much financial attention also. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. Why not reduce funding to Israel and shift it to places who need it much more like post-genocide Rwanda where people need food and water. I don't think old Dershowitz would go for that though. I think it is accurate to say that Israel receives more attention than it should but that is for many reasons, and it cannot be just dismissed as anti-semitically motivated attention. Did you read the 2006 report from B'Tselem just released? I read about many conflicts, thank you very much.

Let me say at the outset that I don't care for Mr. Dershowitz one bit. But his title, if not the premise of his article, certainly is correct. On a regular daily basis, I read the on-line editions of representative newspapers (English versions). The constituent mixture varies, but it generally includes a smattering of countries in the Middle East, in the Near East, in Europe, in Asia, and Australia. To test the very same theory that the title of the article proclaims and to which I independently came to subscribe, I asked my non-Jewish co-worker to participate in a "test." Nothing particular was going on in the Middle East that day nor elsewhere in the World insofar as Jews or Israels should have been concerned. The results were astounding. Whether the paper was in Asia or in Europe or in Australia or in the Middle East or even the good 'ole USA, virtually each and paper visited that day had a FRONT PAGE story about either Jews or Israel or both! Please don't suggest that this is because the Jews "control" the media in Iran, India or Egypt. They certainly do not. And most of the stories were far from flattering. To suggest that such attention is proportional to the deeds of a group that constitutes but a fraction of one percent of the World's population is farcical. Don't believe me? Try it yourself and see what you come up with. For every one story on Darfur or Cambodia, you'll find tens of thousands on Israel and Jews..

Derschowitz seems to be making some big logical leaps here to say that our obsession with Israel is linked in any way with genocide. First of all, I don't think people around the world worry all that much about Israel and it certainly hasn't held the world's attention to the exclusion of everything else for the last fifty years or so. Frankly it's a big arrogant to think that we Jews are so fascinating that people watch our every move. We're not Britney Spears, you know! Also, people are capable of paying attention to more than one thing at a time. You can care about what's happening in Darfur, plan your son' bar mitzvah, and check the baseball scores without having your brain explode. Maybe it seems to you Mr. Dershowitz that the world is focused on Israel because you are a white man living in a country where white men control the means of production. It might seem to you that people don't worry about Darfur, or Cambodia or Central and South America because what's happening there isn't happening to white people. Sorry if it's offensive to say that but the truth sometimes is offensive. Israel might get a little more press where you live because the power brokers in Israel tend toward the lighter skin tones. Truth is that world obsession wiuth Israel isn't the reason genocide continues around the world. If the world has been obsessed with Israel for the last sixty years, how is it that nobody ever says much about the plight of Palestinians?

Your 13# comment was pretty funny, but seriously, just like Nadav said the 6 million is just symbolic. Throughout all Israel's wars and fights with the Palestinians starting from 1948 Israel has killed around 60,000 Arabs and Palestinians in total. Starting from 1990 millions were killed in Congo and Rwanda, around 600,000 people were murdered in Iraq in the past three years only, plenty were killed in Yugoslavia, millions were murdered in Darfur...does anybody hear of them, on the lives that are taken in countries like those every single day, or do you constantly hear about Israel and the "poor" Palestinians? Had the world cared, more UN people would have been sent to Congo where hundreds of thousands of women are being brutally raped each year, to Darfur where more than 2 million people have already lost their homes, etc. but the world doesn't really care for them...they don't have oil and Israel cannot be blamed for that...so the world just ignores and goes on while these people are suffering. This is wrong and hurtful not only towards Israel but also towards them as well and it must be changed, the sooner the better.

What about the 1.5 million killed in cambodia by the pol pot regime? How many thousands killed in viet nam after the south fell? How many were killed in stalin's u.s.s.r.? mao's china? The congo? Six million is a low estimate and it is probably much higher.

you're talking about why the world isn't DOING anything re: those other atrocities. but Dershowitz is saying that the world isn't even TALKING about, or CONDEMNING these atrocities. it's pretty clear that nobody will do shit because America is the world's cop. but everybody gets so vocal when the IDF conduct a few operations. why not get just as vocal, or proportionally vocal, when Iran hangs a few gays, or China tortures a few Falun Gongs to death, or the Darfur government is exterminating millions (that's thousands of thousands)? when Jenin happened, and the big lie of 600 dead was circulated all over the world, even if it was 600, and even if it was all civilian, it isn't 2,500,000 civilians. and why isn't anything done about other atrocities? it's because they don't sit in peoples' psyche as something urgent that needs to be resolved. why? because nobody talks about it. all that the UN talks about is little Israel conducting raids (or as UN members say, "massacres").

George wrote: "You're definitely right about Arab nations using the UN as an Israel-bashing forum whenever they can; it's gotten pretty silly, even if some of the criticism is legit,..." OK, you're on George. Let's hear it. Give us your litany of Israeli crimes against the Muslim Arabs that has rightly been the subject of United Nations discussion and condemnation. You wrote it. We want to hear from Chicago, what is legitimate criticism of Israel in the United Nations? Please be specific.

I agree with no.2 regarding the Govt. killing it's own. He should ad the slaughter on the road by the transport Ministry, underworld killing by the interior Ministry and justice system, the starving of children by an uncompetent PM, need more. PS. why do arabs bother to wage war against Israel?, all they have to do is wait........then walk in----France,Israel,US.

Or the fact that he is a jew and pro Israel?....Or is it the headlines....What are YOU doing to bring about world attention to the genocide de jour? Mr Dershowitz did what every human should do.He made headlines because of his credentials.(What are yours mr George?) By showing the world the inequity as far as action and attention when it comes to diffrent conflicts in the world,we may be able to cause much needed action to stop this genocide. Do you have a problem with THAT? OR.. Do you have a problem with Dershowitz the jew doing what every jew should do? Denying the 6 million killed after 1948 is also wrong. Do your math George,starting with the Soviet Union,all the way to Darfur,all these millions massacred ( real numbers...not inflated ones that MSM jump and scream about when they come from the palestinian sources) while the UN is busy condemmning Israel.And people like you.are busy..hurling diatribes against a jew doing the right thing. Still smells like AS to me ,George. ;-)

George first argues that the obsession with Israel does not in any way displace attention from and action on the world's actually-existing human rights violations -- hallucinogenic drugs, he calls it. Then he argues that, well, it's true that the U.N. is obssessed with Israel to the exclusion of much else -- but that that doesn't matter, since the U.N. can't matter much to resolving human rights matters, anyway. That's a bit rich. The U.N. is indeed, as George asserts, largely useless -- but that's the result of its massive incompetence, not the cause of it. If the U.N. focused on actually-existing problems, it might actually begin to solve them. So far, it is a vector for Arab racism. Fun sport, no doubt, but sad indeed. Dershowitz is absolutely right to bring attention to it. George is pathetic for trying to shut down his criticism.

Obsessed with Israel's political behavior in any manner, not simply "faults." And not its cuisine. Silly distinctions from a silly person. You feel outraged over Dersh's comments. Get a life.

The Lebanese are causing a lot of problems in Australia. There were big fights with them a year ago in Sydney between non Jews and Lebanese.

Take a look at the YNET article on hummus. Apparently, goyim do obsess about Israeli cuisine after all!

George, you make some very good points - but seem to miss the author's point. In 2001 a "human righs conference" was to be held in Africa - a place with more human rights issues these past decades - than any other in the world. It could have been a great opening event to policies and new solutions for nations wrapped in and warped by serious violations of basic human standards. It turned into a "Israel is the world's bad-guy" conference. Year after year people in Africa and the Middle East live under the weight of oppression and the shadow of death. But if you check the daily press clippings - these people and their distress fall onto the back pages in tiny, ignored articles. Yet one person dies in Israel and it's splashed on your front pages and all over CNN for days. Israeli soldiers advance one cm past the Gaza check point and every leader in the known world stands up and cries "foul on the Palestinian people". But with Rwanda and Darfur those same leaders seem to forget the extraordinary power that comes from their united voice. You are right, genocides are not "caused" by obssessing on Israel" - it's the "stopping and preventing" that is harmed.

The Israeli Government killing it's own people? On Y-net? Are you reading the Tehranian version? Yes - people kill people. In Quebec - murder rates are 10.34 per million. In Washington - the rate is 690.30, In Israel the rate is 2.3. Also known as one of the ten safest countries in the world.

Alan Dershowitz has always been very on the ball about our Jewish nation. He is always bright and correct and thoughtful!

From the earliest pages one learns the nations of the world and their obsession to erase the children of Israel off the map and out of existence. The children of Esau and the children of Ishmael hate us now and have always hated us in the past. There is nothing new to report. Throughout thousands of years of persecutions, Crusades, Persia, Greece, Rome, and their modern counterparts, have deemed it an important project. The nations of the world are angry and frustrated. How come, by what rational are the Children of Israel still alive, creative and productive? Our problem is that we don't ask the question "How come we are still in existence after all the thousands of years of slaughter and intermarriage, and spiritual and halachic denial?" The attempt to hide the past just hasn't worked, as history has proven. We can not deny who we are even though the nations of the world seduce us into being like one of them. It just hasn't worked because they will always know who we are even though we put on disguise after disguise. The masks don't work. When will that lesson finally be learned?

Having him as a friend makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck!

Your point has merit :)) How can a man be taken altogether seriously when he was part of the "Dream Team" successfully defending the murderer OJ Simpson. After all, if you worry about injustice for some people, you'd be expected to worry about ALL injustice. What happened with OJ Simpson was injustice and Dershowitz was one of the people responsible for it. Maybe his inconsistency can be understood in terms of psycho-pathology of split morality that afflicts most lawyers. When he's in his legal mode, he does and says what a lawyer would; when he's in his "civilian" mode, he becomes a human being again and speaks the truth as he sees it, with sincerity, conviction and eloquence. I suppose many of us, schmuks, would be uncomfortable operating in AC and DC at the same time - some of us still believe in integrity. But I guess we should be grateful we have someone like Dershowitz who speaks truth half of the time, which is much more than we can say about the UN.

press coverage does bring results. Heavy press coverage and the attendent "world attention" does often end injustice and genocides. See South Africa (heavily covered and consequently a very trendy issue on college campuses throughout the 80s) and the genocide in Kosovo, in which the U.S. finally, reluctantly intervened. But Kate nails it by citing the Durban conference! There they were in the middle of freaking Africa discussing Israel!

Self-absorption is not a recent human condition, nor is it a thing unique to the people of Israel. I need a work of art done. It needs to be a picture as large as a large window. Make a painting called "Down with war" which has angry feminists standing in a pile of aborted babies yet carrying signs denouncing war and the death penalty. Make the babies look like their deaths were agonizing, because they were. In 1948 the USA executed Nazis at Nuremberg for abortion. Shame on you if you are a Christian or Jew and you support this program. Should we dig those Nazis up and apologize to them, citing how much more enlightened they were? "I'm so sorry, Herr Jew-killer, we just didn't get it." I have an assignment for you all. Tomorrow, go to a government sponsored abortion clinic. Get a few pamphlets. Take them home. Everywhere you see "fetus", replace it with "Jew". Let me know here at the truthful-until-it-hurts Ynet, whether or not you instantly saw Hitler in those pages. But be advised, I will know you're an imbecile if you did not. In my country alone, 1.3 million abortions a year are committed. How about your country? Why then can you not see THIS as a genocide? As I said in a previous post, Bin-Laden should have been an abortion clinic "doctor", his body count would have been a LOT higher. Six million Jews dead? That's only about three years' operation for the American abortion clinics alone.

Desmond Tutu, or Ahm-mad-bout-jihad, or Ramsey Clark, or Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro or One Term Jimmy Carter (worst US President EVER).

Police statistics show that there are far more anti-Semitic attacks than anti-Black and anti-muslim. As a matter of fact, there are very, very few anti-Muslim attacks, just a lot of CAIR lies. By the way, what's your definition of anti-Semitism, shoving somebody into oven? How do you define Carter and Buchanan?

why are you working yourself up into frenzy here on an Israeli site instead of doing something useful, like serving as a human shield for those poor people in Darfur, or organizing a web- site to enlighten all those in need of enlightenment about the evils of the Sudanese regime, organize boycott of Sudan, a few demonstrations against Sudan and burn some Sudanese flags, organize some anti-Sudan campus groups etc,. you know the drill.

See what good friends the American fundamentalist and/or evangelist Christians are for us?

As a person of Holocaust Survivors, I sincerely hoped Antisemitism was dead and buried after the hidious atrocities my departed parents and relatives suffered during this horrific time in our history. UNFORTUNATELY, I was definitely wrong!!!!! The people throughout the world that are against the Jewish People fail to realize a major component of our existence. WE have been here since the beginning of time as G-D's chosen people and whether the antisemites around the world want to believe it or not, WE will be here until the end of time, no matter how much hatred and disdain they throw our way!!!

Not to belittle the damage done to Israel, but... In my opinion, your time would be better spent trying to figure out why God allows these things to keep happening to you, rather than why people are turning against you. I will give you a hint. Satan and God play chess. This world is their game board. If Satan can wipe out the seed of Abraham (that is you Jews) then he effectively makes God into a liar, for God promised big things to Abraham about his seed. Thus, Satan who may not be sure himself about the Hebrews and Arabs, has pitted them rather slickly against each other. So any time either side fires a bullet, one of those pesky Abrahamic seeds dies. Thus, the religion that preserves Abrahamic seed is the true religion of God. Thus, since Islam orders the extermination of the Jews, it is purely Satanic and obviously so. And yes, Muslim friends, my family and countrymen will avenge me with bullets greased in pig fat. As for Dorothy the Jew who hates me, though we Fundamentalist Christians saved and protect you still, you have a lot of nerve even wondering about dead Jews as you stand there with a scalpel in your hand, honey. Some of the 1.3 million babies aborted each year in my country are JEWS. I seek to stop this fetal holocaust. Do you? Why hasn't Mr. Dershowitz included them in the tally? You can bet your life that God does. Any Jew found guilty of committing abortion should be summarily executed as the Nazi traitor they truly are. If the USA executed Nazis at Nuremberg for it and no Jew protested, why not now? And why do lesbians lead the fight for the "right" to abort? Have I missed something there? How does a lesbian get pregnant? Perhaps if you stop fretting over lost Jews of yesteryear and start PROTECTING people that are being slaughtered right now, things will self-correct.