This is a political, Jewish blood feud, whose central figures are two liberal American intellectuals. But it's time to cease fire; we need them both in the fight against Bush and Rove!

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America is ground zero of a brutal fight, between two of the good guys.

It is a political, Jewish blood feud, whose central figures are two American intellectuals ? Norman Finkelstein, professor of political science at Chicago?s DePaul University, and Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard University.

At first glance, it seems odd these forces are so opposed. Both scholars are socially conscious progressives known for their Hillelian fights for others? welfare.

But the points of contention here are Israel, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust, areas that since the 1967 Six Day War have not lent themselves to agreeable discourse; and any shared commitments fail to shine through what Dershowitz describes as ?a case study in hate and intimidation? in his new book The Case for Peace (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2005).

With the publication of Norman Finkelstein?s Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (University of California Press, 2005), ? which Dershowitz in an extraordinary campaign tried to prevent from even being published ? the clash is more brutal than ever.

The broad thrust for Finkelstein is his critical view of Israel?s human rights record and what he sees as an intellectual culture flacking for Israel ? of which Dershowitz is prominent ? and wantonly branding even Jewish critics of Israel like Finkelstein as anti-Semites.

Even Beyond Chutzpah?s title is intended as a personal knock on Dershowitz? 1991 best-selling Chutzpah (Little, Brown).

Finkelstein excoriates Dershowitz in particular and blasts Dershowitz? The Case for Israel (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2003) as a deceitful ?fraud? in which one cannot find in Dershowitz? impassioned defense of Israel?s human rights record one fact that ?doesn?t distort a reputable source or reference a preposterous one.?

Exacting and indignant, Finkelstein presents human rights groups? data to attempt to demonstrate that Israel is guilty of all manner of torture, collective punishments, assassinations and other crimes that constitute a ??horrendous human rights record in the Occupied Territories and the misuse of anti-Semitism to delegitimize criticism of it,? as reads his book?s publication statement.

He accuses Dershowitz, specifically, of academic misconduct (a charge of which Dershowitz has been cleared by Harvard), lying about Israel?s human rights record and collaborating in the creation of an ?ideological weapon? used against those who challenge Israeli conduct.

Dershowitz will have none of it, and has criticized Finkelstein point by point in equally condemnatory language in The Case for Peace in which he eloquently lays out a vision for two states with secure and recognized borders.

Alan Dershowitz is a prolific Harvard scholar whose work includes a well-timed exposure of the racist ties of some Bill Clinton chief accusers during the impeachment, and his satisfying dismantlement of the Bush v. Gore decision in Supreme Injustice, How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (Oxford 2001).

The career of Finkelstein is quite different. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from Princeton University for his thesis on Zionism.

The son of two Holocaust survivors (his father and mother endured the Maidanek and Auschwitz concentration camps); Finkelstein pursued his interest in Zionism throughout his academic career.

As a Princeton graduate student in 1984, Finkelstein read the Joan Peters literary sensation, From Time Immemorial: the Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine (Harper & Roe, 1984) that purported to show Palestinians are recent immigrants to the land constituting Israel. Finkelstein researched every footnote and sent his findings to Middle East experts, single-handedly dissecting Peters? now-discredited thesis and making his name in British intellectual circles.

Despite publishing five books in 10 years, including his breakthrough treatment on Holocaust compensation, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Verso 1995) praised by Raul Hilberg, the world's leading Holocaust authority, Finkelstein finds himself in disfavor of much of the American academy that has a tendency to view criticisms of Israel with askance.

What makes the dispute even more toxic is the 25-page appendix table in Beyond Chutzpah in which Finkelstein lays outs quotes from The Case for Israel next to quotes from Peters? From Time Immemorial and alleges that Dershowitz is "lifting without attribution" large sections of From Time Immemorial. This plagiarism accusation is the academic equivalent of accusing a district attorney of accepting bribes; no small matter and one to which, to repeat, Dershowitz has been found innocent by Harvard.

The problem for Dershowitz is that in reading the appendix, it looks pretty damning and appears that Dershowitz is indeed passing off some of Peters? work as his own. One wonders how, if Dershowitz did his own research, he can replicate Peters? idiosyncratic mistakes that are noted by Finkelstein. As Finkelstein writes in a letter in The Nation (August 29, 2005), ?The Case for Israel exactly reproduces Joan Peter?s errors of transcription from the originals, as I copiously document in Beyond Chutzpah. No one who actually checked the originals could have made these identical errors.? But I can?t pretend to know with any certainty.

Dershowitz has knocked down these charges in numerous venues, and he devotes a chapter in response in his new The Case for Peace that accuses Finkelstein (along with MIT professor Noam Chomsky and writer Alexander Cockburn) of a ??well-coordinated pattern of literary McCarthyism?? and hate directed against defenders of Israel.

As the U.S. allocates billions of dollars to Middle East nations, innocents continue to be killed and maimed, and communities literally destroyed, it is up to American readers to find the truth and act in accordance to how they view the policies well represented by this noxious disagreement.

As for me, you know what? I do not wish to minimize these gentlemens' concerns. As first I was intrigued and indignant, but not now. I am actually becoming sick of living for five years under the Bush regime, I literally cannot stand to see this man on TV. I feel fatigued and discouraged by this battle.

These are two imposing intellects with powerful characters with one hell of a lot to offer this world. I love Chomsky, Cockburn, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) (condemned by Finkelstein). Have you ever read the ADL?s ?The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism in America?? It?s superb. It may border on, what?s the word, the childish, but I wish somehow these two men and everything they represent ? the power of the intellect, classical liberal values, and Jewish traditions ? would join forces and go after the most dangerous adversary threatening us today: the SOBs in the White House, because these people just need to be stopped and we absolutely need a two-front war against them. The indictments give me hope, like an injection of pure oxygen.

In light of the vicious accusations and aspersions cast, the horrors visited upon millions of Jewish and Palestinian people throughout history and continuing today, a call to join forces may seem absurd, but that's true Chutzpah.

For more information, visit:

?http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/dershowitz/

?http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/content.php?pg=11

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Authors Website: http://malcontends.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio:
Michael Leon is a writer living in Madison, Wisconsin. His writing has appeared nationally in The Progressive, In These Times, and CounterPunch. He can be reached at maleon64@yahoo.com.