For Dershowitz (law, Harvard Law School), Israel's enemies are those who would "challenge Israel's continued existence as a Jewish, democratic, multiethnic, and multicultural state." Most likely because of his prominence, Jimmy Carter and his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid are the recipients of Dershowitz's opening salvos, with Dershowitz particularly infuriated by the suggestion that Israel's policies towards the West Bank are at all analogous to South Africa's system of apartheid, citing the formal legal equalities of Israeli citizens. He also accuses Carter of making anti-Semitic statements and of having a double standard when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian violence. Others who come under Dershowitz's fire include British academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt and others calling for boycotting Israeli academics and divesting from Israeli businesses; critics on the "hard left," including Noam Chomsky and Robert Finklestein, and on the "hard right"; and those who refuse to condemn Palestinian violence sufficiently. He concludes the book with discussion of Iran's alleged threat to physically destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. Annotation 2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
