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First he distinguishes between those true "innocents" and those who aid Israeli opponents, designated only as "terrorists":There is a vast difference - both moral and legal - between a 2-year-old who is killed by an enemy rocket and a 30-year-old civilian who has allowed his house to be used to store Katyusha rockets. Both are technically civilians, but the former is far more innocent than the latter. There is also a difference between a civilian who merely favors or even votes for a terrorist group and one who provides financial or other material support for terrorism.
Finally, there is a difference between civilians who are held hostage against their will by terrorists who use them as involuntary human shields, and civilians who voluntarily place themselves in harm's way in order to protect terrorists from enemy fire.
But who are those who aid the terrorists, who are not to be counted as among the innocents? It turns out to include all those who fail to heed warnings get out of the way of the Israeli war machine:
The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some - those who cannot leave on their own - should be counted among the innocent victims.
Presumably, if Israel orders all Lebanese to leave their country, any who stay will deserve their fate. After all, this has been the logic Israel has used against Palestinians who resist occupation and expropriation of their land for decades.
And, of course, we should remember that Israel has repeatedly attacked refugees following their orders to leave: Fleeing civilian vehicles hit by Israeli missiles:
The narrow roads that meander through the valleys and undulating chalky hills east of Tyre were a place of terror and death yesterday as Israeli helicopters attacked civilian vehicles fleeing Israel's 11-day onslaught in south Lebanon.
Dr Ahmad Mrowe, director of the Jabal Amel hospital in Tyre, said: "Today is the day of the cars. It has been very bad."
By early evening, the Jabal Amel hospital alone had received 41 wounded, most of them serious, according to hospital sources, all thought to be civilians seeking refuge north of the Litani river after heeding Israeli warnings to leave the area.
So it has come to this. Anyone who fails to leave their home under orders from a besieging army deserves their fate. Dershowitz thus shows that life is only for people found worthy by those with the power. When Jews were the victims of such reasoning, we had terms for it. Now it is simply what passes for "rationality" in American discourse on Israeli-Arab relations.
Unfortunately, the analogy is becoming more appropriate daily as Israel turns all of Lebanon into a massive concentration camp by making escape very dangerous or impossible while destroying the infrastructure that makes a decent life possible. As the Lebanese population dies of starvation and disease in the weeks and months to come, we will no doubt be reminded of how they brought their fate upon themselves by daring to get out of Israel's way.
Dershowitz is, as ever, clever. But cleverness is no excuse for evil. In response, we can only cry "Shame!"
