A Dirge for Dershowitz

How can someone so clever be so, well, naive and irrational.

Professor Alan Dershowitz's latest attempt to assist Israel can peace was published in the Wall Street Journal.

Entitled "A Settlement Freeze Can Advance Israeli-Palestinian Peace", he suggest that "the time is ripe for [Israel's new coalition] government to make a bold peace offer to the Palestinian Authority."

Since the "Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate unless Israel accepts a "freeze" on settlement building" and since "Israel accepted a 10-month freeze in 2009, but the Palestinian Authority didn't come to the bargaining table" and when it "demanded that the freeze be extended indefinitely" and "Israel refused", well, "they walked away from the table...[and] there is every reason to believe that they would continue such game-playing if the Israeli government imposed a similar freeze now...".

So what does defense counsel suggest?  That

...Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should now offer a conditional freeze: Israel will stop all settlement building in the West Bank as soon as the Palestinian Authority sits down at the bargaining table, and the freeze will continue as long as the talks continue in good faith...The Israeli government should take the first step, but the Palestinian Authority must take the second step by immediately sitting down to negotiate in good faith..."

Does that make sense to you?  Would you play chess in that fashion?  Gamble even?

Why not, for instance, have the Pals. stop all their construction for the time period of negotiations?  That media incitement halt?  That a security crackdown be effectively performed?

To be generous, this is fairly amusing and at the same time, disappointing.

Does he manage his courtroom strategy so?

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UPDATE

And in the NYTimes' editorial on June 5, we read:

Mr. Netanyahu should promptly implement the court decision on Ulpana. For the sake of peace, he should go a lot further and declare a cessation in all settlement activity and invite the Palestinians for serious talks. Mr. Netanyahu’s recent decision to bring the center Kadima Party into his coalition has given him space to act. He needs to use his clout to advance a peace agreement that is in the clear interest of Israelis and Palestinians.

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P.S.

Just now saw this from yesterday at the State Dept. briefing:

QUESTION: Yeah. Can we talk about --
MR. TONER: Yeah.
QUESTION: -- the Palestinian issue?
MR. TONER: Sure.
QUESTION: Today, one of the staunchest supporters of the Likud, Alan Dershowitz, a great legal mind, American legal mind, suggested that settlements ought to be frozen while talks are ongoing. Would you support such a proposition?
MR. TONER: Again, I think our focus remains on getting both sides back to the negotiating table as soon as possible. Again, we had this exchange of letters that was very positive.
QUESTION: Right.
MR. TONER: We want to see this back, but in terms of that specific proposal, what’s important for us is that both sides get back to the negotiating table where they can discuss all of these issues.

So, they really agree with Dershowitz either.

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