Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz expanded on his outrage against former President Barack Obama’s call for an end to Israeli “occupation,” explaining why he’s never talking to the Democratic president again.
“I think he always had a deep hatred of Israel in his heart. He hid it very well. He called me to the Oval Office and he said to me, ‘Alan, you’ve known me for a long time. You know I have Israel’s back.’ I didn’t realize he meant to paint a target on it,” Dershowitz said Friday on “Mornings with Maria.”
“He’s never been supportive of Israel. And finally, his true feelings have come out now that he’s no longer president and doesn’t have to be elected,” the professor continued. “He has contributed enormously to the problem because he is respected among young people. And if he says the occupation is unbearable and that anything can be done to stop it, he is encouraging people to engage in their antisemitic, anti-Israel and anti-American attitudes. He should be ashamed of himself. He should apologize, but he won’t.”
Dershowitz’s comments come after he announced on Thursday that his relationship with Obama is “over” after the 44th president made statements about the Israel-Hamas war on stage at the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum, in which he called for an “end of the occupation,” echoing claims from pro-Palestine voices that the nation of Israel is occupying the land of Palestine, as well as calling for a two-state solution during the speech.
“All of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the former president told the forum audience last week. “One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people.”
Dershowitz accused Obama of lying “through his teeth” on Friday, about what Obama called an “unbearable” occupation of Gaza.
“To compare those disputed claims with the rapes, beheadings, burnings, kidnappings, it’s just obscene and despicable,” Dershowitz said. “And what it does is it lends support to those students basically, who are saying, ‘Well, what Hamas really did was not so bad… It was in response to the occupation.’”
“Although he said that the attacks by Hamas are not justifiable,” Dershowitz added, “he made them justifiable because if life really is unbearable, as it’s not, then you can do anything you want.”
Dershowitz argued that Obama is further “pouring gas on the fire” of a serious matter, which could lead to more antisemitic sentiment nationally.
“What he did was contribute to the risks to not only Israelis, but Americans, because it’s coming to a theater near you,” Dershowitz told host Maria Bartiromo. “If Hamas is not stopped in its tracks from doing the terrorist acts, they will bring them to the United States.”
