Ever since his name was linked to the Jeffrey Epstein affair, Prof. Alan Dershowitz, perhaps the most famous lawyer in the world, has been in the battle of his life. It's like McCarthyism "
Two weeks ago,
Prof. Yoram Les
opened his new radio program with a resounding apology to American jurist Alan Dershowitz, on whom he had stated, two weeks earlier, that he was a "childhood rapist."
In a conversation with a listener on September 10, Les said that "Dershowitz raped a girl together with Jeffrey Epstein. He actually raped a girl. He raped him, and he admitted it with his own mouth."
Dershowitz did not linger.
Within a few days, he filed a defamation lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court in the amount of NIS 4 million against Les and Radio 103FM, followed by an apology.
"Things were based on my mistake. I apologize to Prof. Dershowitz. I am very sorry if he was distressed."
But for Dershowitz (82), an apology is not enough.
Not so much as it relates to what he defines as the battle of his life, to the refutation of Virginia Roberts Joffre's claims that as one of the victims of billionaire and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein he traded her and ordered her to have sex with his associates, including Dershowitz.
"If Prof. Les thought he could say such horrible and baseless things about me, and come out of it clean through a feeble apology, he was wrong," Dershowitz explains in a zoom call from his vacation home on Martha's Vineyard Island, Massachusetts.
"Les is a stupid and irresponsible ignoramus, who no longer has to sit in front of a microphone. Not only did he discredit me, he repeated three times the assertion that I had confessed to childhood rape.
"I'm in the midst of a war to disprove every shred of false accusation against me. A war that includes an arsenal of evidence that I did not even meet the one woman who ever claimed to have harmed her. Prof. Les and the radio station will be held accountable, as will anyone who shares my name. False accusations.
"I am the first to defend freedom of expression and freedom of the press all my life as a lawyer. I also believe in the right of the media to make mistakes, as long as they are mistakes in good faith. There is a message here not only to journalists and media, but to people in general, especially on social media: Responsibility for the slanders they uttered, wrote or gave them a stage, without checking the facts, without asking for a response and without remembering that there is a second party.
"I will dedicate the rest of my life to protecting my name, my reputation and especially the truth. I will fight until my last days, and if I die before I prove my complete innocence, my wife Carolyn will continue to fight for my name and for me, and when she dies, my three children will fight, followed by the grandchildren.
"I have realized in recent years that I am not fighting only for myself, but for all the people who have been accused, or may be accused, of false accusations that have no trace of truth."
False accusations are extremely rare.
"Throughout my 55 years as a criminal lawyer I have not had a case of sexual offenses where things were black and white, as in this case. There has always been a large gray area. Early acquaintance between the parties, questions of consent in sex, of power relations.
"The vast majority of the complainants are indeed telling the truth, and this is important for me to clarify. There have been very few cases where charges have been raised for money.
"In my case, I am accused by a woman I have never met, and I have no doubt that she is prevented from making a money. Although I have evidence to disprove her claims, her false accusations have become sufficient to make me guilty. There is no longer any presumption of innocence and no need for a court. To me, it can happen to anyone and everyone. "
"Unsubstantiated claims"
The complicated sexual offenses affair continues to branch out even more than a year after Epstein's suicide in his cell in the Manhattan Detention Center.
Epstein was arrested in 2008 following a lengthy investigation by the Palm Beach Police Department and the FBI, and is suspected of committing sexual offenses on minors, including trafficking and solicitation for prostitution.
Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and one of the greatest experts in criminal law, was part of the defense team, which achieved Epstein a plea deal of only 13 months in prison.
Not only that, but according to Florida law, Epstein was allowed to continue working for much of his prison term, so for six days a week, he got out of jail at 8 a.m. and returned at 8 p.m.
The years after the plea bargain were replete with failed attempts at justice by dozens of women, who claimed to have been victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking, most of them as minors and from difficult backgrounds.
Following a series of journalistic investigations, US authorities opened criminal proceedings against him, and in July 2019 he was arrested again. The details of the plea bargain were reconsidered, at the public and legal level. The settlement was defined as sweetheart deal (where one party gets exorbitant relief at the expense of other parties). Severe, and a federal court in New York ruled that the Romo victims and their rights were violated, and then-Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who served as the federal attorney general in the Southern District of Florida in 2008 and approved the plea deal, was forced to resign.
Shortly after Epstein's arrest, the Attorney General of the Southern New York District decided to prosecute him for committing serious crimes, such as trafficking in minors for sexual purposes, conspiracy to traffick women, and bribing witnesses.
On August 10, 2019, Epstein was found hanging from his cell in the detention center.
But the affair did not end there.
Three months ago, the FBI managed to locate and arrest Galein Maxwell, the daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell, who has been alleged over the years to have been an alleged partner in Epstein's sex industry.
Maxwell, who was formerly Epstein's partner and maintained a close relationship with him even later, is accused, among other things, of soliciting a minor and conspiring to solicit minors for sexual purposes.
She denies everything alleged against her.
Following the affair, Netflix produced the documentary series "Jeffrey Epstein: Terrible Wealth," which aired in May this year.
Jupra's claims regarding Dershowitz were raised as early as the end of 2014 in legal proceedings, due to the claims of many complainants that the prosecution and the court did not present the plea agreement with Epstein and did not allow them to state their position before it was signed (as required by law on victims' rights). .
Joffra, then anonymous, claimed that Epstein sexually abused her, and in this context also mentioned Dershowitz's name.
She claims to have had sex with Dershowitz at least six times - including at Epstein's home in New Mexico, on one of his private jets, and on the island of Little St. James, which was owned by Epstein and also known as the "non-orgies" or "non-pedophile island."
"I've never heard those nicknames," Dershowitz says.
"I did know the nickname Little St. Jeff (short for Jeffrey), and Epstein even handed out T-shirts to his guests, who bore that caption.
"My war started in 2014 and was decided to my satisfaction on several points. But it resurfaced around various media publications, sponsored by the MeToo movement, peaked around Epstein's prosecution, and became bloody with the broadcast of the series on Netflix.
"Since Jupra's false and baseless allegations appeared in internal legal documents, I could not defend myself legally and sue her. I demanded that the court be struck out, because I am not a party to the proceedings and have no option to defend myself, and that was exactly the case. If Jupra can at all be included in the proceedings conducted by complainants before the administration.
"But later, details started leaking out to the media, and I'm convinced it was intentional on the part of Jupra and her lawyers. Accordingly, I was asked for comments, and bits of lies began to appear."
Accusations in front of the cameras
Joffra was the first to sue Dershowitz for his resolute reactions to her accusations following media reports, and was immediately granted a lawsuit on his part.
"Until the series aired on Netflix I could not sue her for the full content of her charges, because they only appeared in court documents and in closed proceedings. In the series she makes them explicitly, in front of the camera. That's what I was able to sue her last June in New Southern District Court. "I demanded from the court, in addition to determining the compensation due to me, that every detail of her claims against me and my detailed answers to them be clarified in a legal proceeding, before a jury."
In June, you filed a warning letter with Netflix before a lawsuit, as its allegations were aired.
"It was the director who told me to challenge her in my interview for the series and call on her to accuse me in public, in front of the cameras. I was happy to do so, because I knew that if she finally said, publicly and openly, that she was blaming me, I could sue her. I will be given the opportunity to comment on her remarks.It was explicitly promised to me by Netflix, in the presence of my wife.
"Despite this, they have not given me the opportunity to respond. Therefore, I am suing them for breach of contract. Due to the practice in California, so far a warning letter has been filed. I have no intention of waiving them.
"Before the filming, I also passed on to the production of the series the evidence that proves every claim of mine. For example, emails that make it clear that she does not know me. ', For a book she had started working on. She asked that journalist to help her come up with names of men that Epstein had sent her to, because she did not remember herself.
"The journalist wrote back to Joffre with the following words: 'Do not forget Alan Dershowitz, Epstein's friend and lawyer. It's a good name to mention, because he represented Klaus von Biolo and a film about the story was also produced. Proof of that, you must have met him sometime when he was hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein. 'To this Joffre replied:' Thank you. I will applaud this book! '
"And that's not all. There are recordings of her lawyer, who claims she was wrong to accuse me, there is a recorded testimony of her good friend, who says that Joffra admitted to her that she did not want to include me in the line of men she accused - and rightly so, because I never met her. But the lawyers Its pressured her to include me.
"I have documentation of her history of lies, including about her biographical details. She invented a whole story about Al Gore and his then-wife Tipper, which took place on Epstein's island. There is only one small problem: they both never met Jeffrey Epstein and were never on the island. She received $ 160,000 from the Daily Mail and lied there as well. I was promised in writing that they would use the materials I transferred, and Netflix did not.
"I want every material related to me to be published, every piece of information about me. Every note, every interview with me, every conversation, every pinch of evidence. I'm not afraid to speak, my life is a clean sheet, and from the first moment it was clear to me that no such material would be found. I Can prove exactly what I did in each and every one of the days over the two years that Jupra was allegedly a victim of Epstein.Credit company documentation, details of phone calls, airline tickets, travel documentation, lectures and media interviews.A long line of evidence, making her claims impossible .
"I have never done anything wrong. I have never hugged a woman inappropriately, I have never touched a woman inappropriately. I have had sexual intercourse with only one woman for the past 34 years, and that is my wife. I have nothing to hide. Nothing. I Do not think this applies to other people against whom similar charges have been leveled.
"I can understand why a person who has something to hide will be silent. Even someone who has been accused in vain of one thing, but is embarrassed or has something to hide in other aspects of his private life. But if a person is accused in vain, without doing anything wrong, he must fight back.
"As an individual, I have lived a very dignified and completely open life. My personal life is an open book, devoid of secrets, and even boring - in stark contrast to my controversial public life. In contrast, when I represented O.J. Simpson and Mike Tyson, of course I provoked controversy.
"50 years as a professor at Harvard University is without a single complaint against me. I had ten thousand students, about a third to half of them women, worked with me as dozens of research assistants, administrators, and of course, a long line of colleagues. I worked with women from different parts of the world. Against me never.
"I swear the story is completely fabricated, from beginning to end, categorically and unreservedly (he raises his right hand, as if by oath). I swear in the lives of my children and grandchildren that I never had sex with Jupra, I did not touch her, I did not know her. "And as far as I know, I did not even see her."
"I did not like what I discovered"
You were a friend of Epstein's before you became his lawyer, and he was even one of a very small circle of people who read your manuscripts before publication.
What happened after you finished representing him in 2008?
"I was not a close friend of his, but there was a friendly and academic relationship between us. When the relationship became professional, between a lawyer and a client, I was paid for every minute of work. After the plea agreement was signed, our relationship was severed, except for several times he called me." "I did not want anything to do with the man."
Why?
"Because I really did not like what I found out about him. I did not see him with young women, and certainly not with girls, I did not see nude pictures of women and girls, like those depicted in the series. But the little that came up in 2008 was enough for me not to want any friends. "With him. I'm sorry I even knew him."
In the series you emphatically defend the plea bargain he received thanks to you.
"There is no reason for me to withdraw my position regarding the plea bargain. The prosecution had almost no evidence to prosecute Epstein at the federal level. The solid evidence only concerned offenses committed at the state level, in Florida. A confession to crimes committed in Florida on one girl, and he will be registered as a sex offender and will be jailed. By the way, Epstein was furious with me that we came to this settlement.
"The criticism of the settlement should be referred to the prosecution and the court. The only person who should not be criticized is the defense attorney, who performed his job very successfully. I am proud to be a lawyer who achieves the best settlement for his clients. Do you expect me to achieve the worst settlement?
"My job is to protect the rights of my clients, even if they have committed serious offenses, just as a doctor's job is to cure. I taught my Harvard students that they should represent who no one is willing to represent. Not only is everyone entitled to legal protection, but the less popular they are in society. "This is how important it is to preserve his fundamental right to defend himself. Woe to us all if the situation were different."
If Epstein were alive and asked you to represent him in this case, would you agree?
"No, because I do not represent a client more than once. This is one of my rules with myself, in addition to refusing to represent fugitive criminals and those who are in the criminal business, part of the crime industry. Maybe Epstein meets that criterion as well. I do not claim he is innocent and Does not rule out the possibility that Joffre is one of his victims.What is for sure is that I am a victim of her false accusations.
"If another person who had similar charges against me had approached me to represent him, of course I would not have refused. One of Harvey Weinstein's lawyers approached me to advise on a particular legal issue in the sexual offenses case being conducted against him. It's Weinstein, whom everyone denounces and hates, but I found there "I'm now representing Julian Assange (the founder of WikiLeaks), and although there is a lot of hatred towards him, I will defend him in the criminal proceedings against him in the US for leaking classified documents."
"Willing to lie for money"
As part of the war he is waging, Dershowitz last year published a book that recounts the affair and includes evidence that he claims proves his innocence.
"All my friends told me not to publish the book. That it would only draw more attention to the story and give more room for accusations against me, instead of making them disappear. But I have no interest in making it all disappear, because I refuse to end my life when there are those who think I made accusations The goddesses slip to the margins and are forgotten without providing an answer.
"My goal is to absolutely, categorically and unequivocally refute all the accusations and expose the conspiracy against me. A deliberate and conscious conspiracy of deceitful and immoral lawyers, and a client willing to lie for money to ruin my reputation and then blackmail others. An elegant, simple and shameful plan, To accuse Dershowitz in public of having sex with her six or seven times, and so you can blackmail others who will try to avoid going through what I'm going through.
Dershowitz opens the book with an introduction for readers.
"The MeToo movement was a benevolent force," he writes, "but like many other good movements, it was abused by some bad people, for personal gain. MeToo supporters must not allow false accusations, which hurt real victims by being protected under the movement's moral protection. And turn it into an exploitative sword against innocent people. "
Why was it important for you to write this introduction?
"Because the harm to me was made possible in the spirit of MeToo. I am in no way against the women's rights organizations, nor against the MeToo movement. Precisely because it is very significant, the important social change it has brought about must not be abused. I will donate the money I receive to sex victims "The accusations are false, because these and those are on the exact same side: the side of truth. In addition to them, I will donate to organizations that fight BDS, to the Alef Institute, which helps the release of Jewish and Israeli prisoners all over the world, and to the Rescue Union."
The Rescue Union is one of a long line of Jewish and Israeli organizations, for which Dershowitz has been a volunteer or donor for decades.
"One of the organization's motorcycles is named after my wife and my name, and we get an email every time he takes part in saving a life."
He was born in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to an Orthodox Jewish family, attended Yeshiva University High School, and studied law at Yale University.
In 1964 he was appointed a lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he worked until 2013. He divides his time between his apartments in Manhattan and Miami Beach, and every summer he vacates on Martha's Vineyard Island.
Dershowitz has published 46 books, some of which are dedicated to dealing with Israel.
His latest book, which deals with the process of appointing judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, was written and published within eight days. "I began writing it on September 24, and the book was published on October 2.
The publisher submitted the details to the Guinness Book of Records.
Over the years he has represented prominent figures, including Jonathan Pollard, O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson and many others.
"Half of my cases are voluntary, including many cases in which I represented women who were victims of sexual, physical and mental abuse. Some of my clients are known to the public, such as Mia Farrow, Patricia Hearst and Mariam Rajawi. Others are not known at all - a woman killed her abusive husband Who was sexually harassed by one of the lecturers.
"The most important case in my professional life, when I represented Natan Sharansky for eight years to get him released from prison, was done voluntarily. I bore the legal costs myself. His release was one of the highlights of my professional and personal life. It is a great privilege to represent a really good person, a nice and innocent person. "It doesn't happen much to criminal lawyers, who usually represent Jeffrey Epstein."
"Silence my voice"
Dershowitz is one of the most prominent, eloquent, dedicated and influential speakers for Israel.
"On the campuses in the United States, anti-Israel elements are speaking out today, speaking out against Israel.
I was always invited to comment on the incitement, but the false accusations against me led to them stopping me because a perception was established that I was really accused of sexual offenses and feared protests by women's organizations.
Silence my voice for the defense of Israel.
This is one of the main reasons I am fighting back so hard, with all my might.
I am not prepared for lies to make me unable to fight for Israel.
"Since the Netflix series, I have also not been invited to lecture at Jewish organizations, such as 92Y (a prominent activity center of the Jewish community in New York), which have canceled me and not invited me. They told me, 'We know you are innocent, but we want to avoid trouble.' That this is what happens after 25 years in which I am their most wanted speaker, second only to the late Eli Wiesel, who was a good friend of mine.
If Wiesel was alive, I know he would have been horrified by it and refused to appear there.
"Temple Amnu-El, the largest synagogue in New York, stopped inviting me to appear before the public. I am no longer invited to speak at Jewish book fairs, nor at general book fairs.
"It's like during the McCarthy era in the 1950s. Even then people were not invited, not because they were guilty of something, but so that there would be no problems. Shows you what can happen to a good person who lives a dignified life and always tries not to do anything immoral or inappropriate, and how everything Can be destroyed because of one woman who publishes false accusations. "
Dozens of pictures hang densely on the wall behind his back in the small study.
A drawing of a pioneer received by the JNF, his cartoons from the time he represented Klaus von Biollo (on whom the film "Fate Revolutions" was made), honorary doctorates, and pictures of him with American and Israeli leaders, including one with Golda Meir in her office.
"I've met Golda many times, even at her house," he looks at the picture and smiles.
"She made us both tea, and we sat and chatted.
"In 1970, Arthur Goldberg, a U.S. Supreme Court justice who was a childhood friend of mine, asked me to hand her a carton of unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes. I had to hide it from her security guards, so I pinned the carton to my leg under my pants. "When I gave it to her, she was happy that Goldberg had taken care of her supply of her favorite American cigarettes. I was a young lawyer then, and from Golda's era to the present day, I have had close friendships with all Israeli prime ministers, regardless of their party affiliation."
Dershowitz has been involved in recent decades in attempts to promote a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as other issues related to Israel, such as Iran's nuclear armament.
He has recently been involved in formulating President Trump's Century Plan and promoting normalization between Israel and the Gulf states.
"In early 2018, President Trump approached me to hear my views, as part of the process of formulating his plan. For several days, I joined the team members who discussed the details of the plan at the White House, including Jared Kushner and Avi Berkowitz.
"Since 1970, I have been a consistent view that a two-state solution should be promoted, but provided the Palestinian state is demilitarized, the Jordan Valley will remain under Israeli sovereignty and Israel's security interests will be carefully guarded. I have met with Abu Mazen and Saeb Erekat several times. "I still believe in it. I will always be the first to mobilize for the preservation of the strong relations between Israel and the United States and for the preservation of Israel and its interests."
You defended Netanyahu and argued that he should not be prosecuted.
"I do not believe that Netanyahu has committed crimes. Prime ministers are always debating with various sources in the media about the nature and amount of coverage, this is not an issue that should be included in the criminal field. If they start prosecuting positive coverage, then MKs who promoted Israel Today will also be prosecuted. 'To receive positive coverage in Yedioth Ahronoth.
"By the way, I have known my father Mandelblit (the ombudsman) for years and I really appreciate him.
I believe he is an honest and professional person, but he was wrong when he decided to prosecute Netanyahu.
"Regarding the receipt of personal gifts, if you want it to be considered a criminal offense, it should be stipulated in the law that it is mandatory to report the receipt of gifts above a certain, parable amount, as exists in the United States.
It is impossible to leave to the claim the determination of how many bottles of champagne or cigars are too much.
"In every meeting I have with the Prime Minister, I give him a gift, one of his sprays. A worthless gift, and yet, a gift. Changing the law is recommended so that it sets a quantitative threshold that makes receiving gifts a criminal act.
"All this is not political support, but legal opinion, regardless of my political views. I supported Hillary Clinton when she faced Trump, and I do not support Trump's policy. But I believe in the constitution, so I do not think the attempt to oust him was legitimate and constitutional. So I defended him. "Just as I defended Bill Clinton in his 1998 Senate dismissal in the Monica Lewinsky case."
Who will you vote for in the upcoming elections?
"Leiden. I support the Democratic Party, and I will continue to do so, in order to reduce and marginalize anti-Israel elements. I preferred Biden over the Jewish Bernie Sanders, because of Sanders' attitudes toward Israel."
What are Biden's positions on Israel?
"Biden, as well as Kamala Harris, are pro-Israel, and I am pleased that they are candidates for the Democratic Party. It is difficult to know how the hard left in the party will affect them. The Americans for Peace organization, because it was pressured by pro-Palestinian elements, is in no way willing to be perceived as supporting Zionism and is very hostile to Israel.
"Many on the left in the United States have reached out to her and tried to bring her together with Israeli officials or bring her to visit Israel, and she refuses.
It is part of the image or face of the new and progressive young left in the Democratic Party.
That is why my voice is extremely important, as is any voice that supports Israel and the preservation of a pro-Israel attitude in the Democratic Party. "
The closeness between Netanyahu and Trump weakened the Democrats' support for Israel?
"Only in some ways. The real supporters of Israel are still a significant part of the Democratic Party. There are those who are guided by opposition to everything Trump supports, but they are few. The majority support Israel, regardless of the nature of government, even if they do not support parts of Israeli policy.
"I believe that if Obama had recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, all the Jews of the world would have expressed sweeping support. But because Trump took this step, a significant number of Jews objected to it, claiming it was not the right time or not essential.
"The agreement with Iran was one of the big issues at the heart of the dispute between Democrats and Republicans, and yet, many of the Democratic Jews opposed it and the move Obama promoted in relation to Iran. I wrote a book about it in 2015, 'The Case Against the Iran Deal,' which ended my relationship. "With Obama. After the book was published, Obama did not invite me to the traditional Hanukkah party at the White House, to which I have always been invited."
"Violence is not freedom of expression"
Do you support protests against the government, as there are in the US and Israel?
"In the United States, as in Israel, the political protest against the government is combined with the protest over how to deal with the corona crisis.
The United States is protesting against both the crisis management and Trump's general policy - for example, the intention to appoint Judge Amy Connie Brett to the Supreme Court. I fear that after the US election, everything will get worse.
The demonstrations will be much broader and sharper, regardless of the identity of the winner, Trump or Biden.
I guess there will be violent riots in the streets.
"Of course I support demonstrations, this is a right protected by the freedom of expression. But violence is not freedom of expression.
"We live in a world where people are divided. The United States is completely divided, as it has not been since the Civil War in the 19th century.
Israel is more divided than ever.
I have visited Israel at least 100 times, and I do not remember Israeli society so divided and polarized.
When I celebrated my 70th birthday in Israel, we invited people like Aharon Barak, Netanyahu and Olmert.
Today I would not be able to gather at a birthday party my friends from the left and right in Israel. "
The argument is that the leadership, both in the United States and in Israel, is fueling polarization.
"Both sides of the political map are fueling the polarization. I lost quite a few of my friends as a result of defending Trump before the Senate. Who's the core of it? Is it not divisive and extreme? I will continue to provide legal advice to any president, as part of my professional and civic duty."
What is your position on Connie Brett's appointment to the Supreme Court?
"She was not my choice. She strongly opposes abortion, and the big question is whether she will allow her religious beliefs to interfere with her judicial decisions. She herself wrote that Catholic-Catholic judges may have to disqualify themselves from hearing cases involving the death penalty and abortions. So in the Senate.
"The timing is very problematic, and it can be argued that there is quite a bit of hypocrisy here. When President Obama wanted to appoint Justice Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in February 2016, eight months before the election, Republicans prevented it. This time a few weeks before the election, "That would affect the balance of power in the Supreme Court. It is allowed by the constitution, but morally and politically problematic. In other words, it is kosher, but not strictly kosher."
Judge Connie Brett may play a critical role, given that Trump has not pledged to respect the election results and the Supreme Court may rule on the matter.
"If the whole story is decided in Trump's favor by the newly appointed judge, there will be a major constitutional crisis here. But I do not think it will all happen, because at the moment the polls show that the results will be decisive and Biden will win. On the other hand, you never know.
What do you think of Trump's opposition to postal votes?
"This is a mistake. I think voting should be allowed in the mail, even if a small part of it may be fake, the vast majority will not be, and it is important to take it into account."
In your opinion, which method of appointing judges is better, Israeli or American?
"The Israeli system is a correct and better system than the American one. The choice of judges in Israel is made not only by politicians but also by jurists, it is professional and leads to first-year Supreme Court judges being elected to the Supreme Court.
"The system in Israel is in danger, threatened and challenged non-stop, and it's a shame. I think it would be a big mistake to allow greater political involvement in the appointment of judges. The procedure should remain as professional as possible and as political as possible.
"The Supreme Court of Israel has proven its credibility and excellence above and beyond. Haim Cohen, Agranat, Beinisch, Barak and Shamgar, whom I knew when he was the Chief Military Advocate and whom I miss very much.
"I have a critique of the Israeli legal system. For example, of a selective prosecution. For example, of Netanyahu's prosecution, which may even have been motivated by political motives. But from here to an attack on the entire system, the distance is great. It is definitely not justified in my eyes. "The Israeli will support the justice system. This is very important, especially these days."
***
103 FM reported: "Prof. Dershowitz filed a claim for imaginary sums due to Prof. Les' statement, which was based on a mistake. As soon as the mistake was known, Les apologized live, and this apology received a lot of publicity. It is important to emphasize that "Les to a topic raised by a listener, and not in a segment whose broadcast was planned in advance and would have allowed an examination."
Mentflix reported: "No response".
lanskinam@gmail.com