ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ is a Brooklyn native who has been called “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer” and one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” “the top lawyer of last resort,” and “America’s most public Jewish defender.” He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg.


While he is known for defending clients such as Anatoly Sharansky, Claus von Bülow, O.J. Simpson, Michael Milken and Mike Tyson, he continues to represent numerous indigent defendants and takes half of his cases pro bono.


Dershowitz is the author of 20 works of fiction and non-fiction, including 6 bestsellers. His writing has been praised by Truman Capote, Saul Bellow, David Mamet, William Styron, Aharon Appelfeld, A.B. Yehoshua and Elie Wiesel. More than a million of his books have been sold worldwide, in numerous languages, and more than a million people have heard him lecture around the world.


His most recent nonfiction titles are Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (November 2004, Basic Books), The Case for Israel (September 2003, Wiley), America Declares Independence, Why Terrorism Works, Shouting Fire, Letters to a Young Lawyer, Supreme Injustice, and The Genesis of Justice. His novels include The Advocate’s Devil and Just Revenge. Dershowitz is also the author of The Vanishing American Jew, The Abuse Excuse, Reasonable Doubts, Chutzpah (a #1 bestseller), Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award-winning film), Sexual McCarthyism and The Best Defense.

Blog Entries by Alan Dershowitz

The United Nations Kangaroo "Investigation" of Israeli "War Crimes"

1 Comments | Posted June 30, 2009 | 05:19 PM (EST)


Just as Spain's National Court decided to shelve a phony war crime investigation of a 2002 Israeli air strike in Gaza, a group of lawyers and military experts assigned by the United Nations Human Rights Council continued its phony investigation of "the grave violations of human rights in the occupied...

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Taking a Stand Against Iran

61 Comments | Posted June 8, 2009 | 05:41 PM (EST)


Irwin Cotler, the former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, member of Canadian parliament and co-author of this piece, is introducing legislation in Canadian parliament today called the "Iran Accountability Act." While it expressly holds Iran to account - for its genocidal threats, nuclear ambitions and domestic repressions...

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No Linkage Between Iran and Palestinians

154 Comments | Posted May 11, 2009 | 01:24 PM (EST)


Rahm Emanuel is a good man and a good friend of Israel, but in a highly publicized recent statement he linked American efforts to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons to Israeli efforts toward establishing a Palestinian state. This is a dangerous linkage.

I have long favored the two-state solution,...

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Confronting Evil at Durban II

15 Comments | Posted April 28, 2009 | 03:16 PM (EST)


Last week I came face to face with evil, as I stood just a few feet away from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We were both staying in the same hotel in Geneva. He was there to be the opening speaker at Durban II, a review and reprise of Durban I, the United...

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Defeating Freeman: A Patriotic Duty

Posted March 13, 2009 | 11:36 AM (EST)


Those who successfully challenged the nomination of Charles W. Freeman, Jr. to become chairman of the National Intelligence Council should be praised for an act of high patriotism. It would have been disastrous for the United States to have, as the person responsible for overseeing "policy-neutral intelligence assessments" for the...

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My Letter to Hampshire President Hexter

Posted February 26, 2009 | 11:18 AM (EST)


Dear President Hexter:

Hampshire has now done the right thing. It has made it unequivocally clear that it did not and will not divest from Israel. Indeed, it will continue to hold stock in companies that do business with Israel as well as with Israeli companies, so long as these...

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Hampshire Divests from Israel, So Contributors Should Divest from Hampshire

Posted February 19, 2009 | 04:47 PM (EST)


Several months ago, a rabidly anti Israel group on the Hampshire College campus began a campaign to try to get the college to divest from six companies that they claim helped "the Israeli occupation of Palestine." Those who came up with this formulation regard all of Israel, including Tel Aviv,...

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For the International Criminal Court To Work, The Worst Must Come First

Posted February 10, 2009 | 03:11 PM (EST)


There are efforts now underway to try to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on charges of alleged war crimes. Neither Israel nor the United States has signed on to this court, primarily out of fear that its power would be used against democracies that...

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The Phony War Crimes Accusation Against Israel

Posted January 22, 2009 | 01:04 PM (EST)


Every time Israel seeks to defend its civilians against terrorist attacks, it is accused of war crimes by various United Nations agencies, hard left academics and some in the media. It is a totally phony charge concocted as part of Hamas' strategy -- supported by many on the hard left...

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Another Good Reason for Not Prosecuting the "Bushies"

Posted January 16, 2009 | 10:30 AM (EST)


There has been considerable debate of late as to whether the incoming Obama administration should prosecute members of the Bush administration who were responsible for violating civil liberties and human rights. In addition to the theoretical arguments that have been offered against such prosecutions, let me offer a practical one...

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Israel Is Well Within Its Rights

Posted January 13, 2009 | 05:21 PM (EST)


What if Israel defended its citizens the way the British, the French, the Americans and the Russians did? When German rockets hit British cities during the World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill retaliated by bombing German cities, killing thousands of German civilians, and promised to continue until Germany's unconditional...

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Israel Bans A UN Rapporteur Who Compares the Jewish State to Nazi Germany

Posted December 18, 2008 | 02:19 PM (EST)


Imagine the UN appointing David Duke to report on how Blacks are victimizing whites, or Hugo Chavez to report on American foreign policy, or Mohammad Ahmadinejad to investigate whether the Holocaust occurred.

Well the UN has done something comparable by appointing Richard Falk as its supposedly impartial "rapporteur" on...

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What We Need Now: An Ungrateful President

Posted November 11, 2008 | 02:26 PM (EST)


Barack Obama won an overwhelming electoral college and popular victory. He, more than any other president in recent history, has a clear mandate. More important, he owes his election to no particular individual, no group, no specific constituency, or no ideology. He won the election because he was an overwhelmingly...

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Should the Los Angeles Times Reveal the Khalidi Videotape?

Posted October 29, 2008 | 04:29 PM (EST)


Fox News thinks it has discovered -- or invented -- the October surprise that will change the outcome of the election in John McCain's favor. It is a dud! They have been devoting hours of television time to publicizing John McCain's demand that the Los Angeles Times release a video...

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Why I Support Israel and Obama

Posted October 17, 2008 | 02:32 PM (EST)


I am a strong supporter of Israel (though sometimes critical of specific policies). I am also a strong supporter of Barack Obama (though I favored Hillary Clinton during the primaries). I am now getting dozens of emails asking me how as a supporter of Israel I can vote for Barack...

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Demeaning Jewish Victims of Terrorism

Posted July 7, 2008 | 11:15 AM (EST)


Following the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday which killed at least 3 Israelis and injured approximately 50 others, discredited academic Norman Finkelstein sunk to a new low -- which is saying something for a man who has trivialized the Holocaust, supported terrorism, and claimed that Libya had nothing to...

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The Hamas Government Has Declared War Against Israel: How Should Israel Respond?

Posted March 14, 2008 | 04:11 PM (EST)


Article 51 of the United Nations Charter guarantees its members "the inherent right to...individual self defense" against "an armed attack." In January of 2006, Hamas was elected to govern the Palestinian Authority. After Israel ended its occupation of Gaza and removed all of its settlers, Hamas threw the Palestinian Authority...

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British Intelligence Is Smarter Than Ours -- and Than Gary Hart

Posted March 4, 2008 | 07:54 PM (EST)


Anyone who doubts that Iran is determined to develop deliverable nuclear weapons should not be in a position of decision making or influence. The evidence is as clear as can be, despite the "fog of peace" artificially constructed by the recent National Intelligence Estimate issued by our government's collective intelligence...

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Hezbollah's Genocidal Threat

Posted February 18, 2008 | 05:24 PM (EST)


The leader of Hezbollah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has now called for revenge against Israelis and Jews around the world, for the assassination of Imad Moughniyah, which he claims was done by Israel. It does not matter, of course, who actually pulled off the assassination. Israel and the Jews would be...

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Targeting Mugniyah Was The Right Thing

Posted February 14, 2008 | 10:50 PM (EST)


If Imad Mugniyah -- the Hezbollah terrorist mastermind who was responsible for hundreds if not thousands of murders -- was indeed successfully targeted for assassination, his untimely death should be cause for celebration. I say untimely, because if he had been killed years ago, many innocent lives would have been...

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