Israel goes to great lengths to play fair when battling with the Palestinians, but when they resort to using mosques to store weapons or hide terrorists, the building becomes a "legitimate target," former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday on "America’s Forum" on
Newsmax TV.
"They use them as weapons storage systems, as entrance points to tunnels, and there are
photographs of terror tunnels being dug in mosques," Dershowitz said. "Islamic extremists can't have it both ways."
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Dershowitz is the author of the e-book
"Terror Tunnels: The Case for Israel's Just War Against Hamas"
The
British parliament’s recent vote to recognize Palestine as a state — a symbolic gesture intended to increase pressure for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
— will set back the peace process since the vote equates to caving to a terrorist group, according to Dershowitz.
"That and the stupid, illegal Syrian decision to recognize Palestine," he said. "It sends a message to the Palestinian leadership. You don't have to negotiate with Israel. All you have to do is make a lot of noise, blow up some buses and Sweden or Great Britain is going to recognize you. If the Palestinians are disincentived from negotiating with the Israelis, they'll never have a two-state solution. The only way to have a two state solution is for London and Stockholm to tell the Palestinians if they want to be recognized as a state, they need to make a deal."
Dershowitz also weighed in on the Ebola crisis, telling Newsmax TV host John Bachman that the government is within its rights to
quarantine people during a public health crisis.
"When there are health threats, the government often oversteps," he said. "In this case, they don't seem to be overstepping. Some people think they are understepping. They do have enormous power, according to old Supreme Court cases. They can certainly stop people from coming into our borders, including U.S. citizens, and they can stop Americans from traveling to places where Ebola is contagious.
"They can quarantine, but it has to be reasonable. In this case, quarantines do make sense. They were used recently against a reporter for one of the major networks. There's plenty of power in the government from a public health point of view. I'm less concerned than I would have been if any political uses were being made. "
Before forming an opinion on whether the Obama administration should ban flights into and out of West Africa, Dershowitz said he’d like to hear from public health experts. He dismisses any notion that racism is at play in how the U.S. is addressing the Ebola crisis.
"Some people say its racial profiling and we're only stopping people from Africa," he said. "Well, duh, that's where the illness is. If the illness were in London, we'd be stopping people from London."
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