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Israel Bans a UN Rapporteur Who Compares the Jewish State to Nazi Germany
[Hudson Institute] Alan M. Dershowitz - The UN has appointed Richard Falk as its supposedly impartial "rapporteur" on Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories. Falk is a notorious crackpot who believes that the U.S. is hiding the truth about 9/11, implying that our government has "complicity" in that terrorist attack. Falk has written that it is not an "irresponsible overstatement" to accuse Israel of perpetrating a "criminalized" Nazi Holocaust on the Palestinian people. I propose a new rule for civil discourse in a civilized society: anyone who compares what the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust with what the Israelis are doing with regard to the Palestinians should be disqualified from being taken seriously on any issue relating to Jews, Israel or the Middle East. Such people have a right to express their obscene and barbaric views, but they should be treated as pariahs by all decent people who believe in nuanced and calibrated consideration of complex and divisive issues. Comparison between the Holocaust and Israel is simply beyond the pale of reasoned discourse. That Falk was selected by the UN to assess the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians tells us more about the UN than it does about Israel.