Alan Dershowitz just claimed that former President Barrack Obama has "a deep hatred of Israel in his heart."
Dershowitz, a well-known defense attorney and a Democrat, said as much during an appearance Friday on the Fox News Channel's Mornings with Maria.
"I think he always had a deep hatred of Israel in his heart. He hid it very well. He called me to the Oval Office, and he said to me, 'Alan, you've known me for a long time. You know I have Israel's back.' I didn't realize he meant to paint a target on it," Dershowitz said.
He added, "[Obama has] never been supportive of Israel. And finally, his true feelings have come out now that he's no longer president and doesn't have to be elected."
What Dershowitz was responding to were recent remarks that Obama made about the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Obama has actually made several recent controversial remarks about the conflict.
During an appearance on Pod Save America, for example, the former president said this:
If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively, to do something, it will require an admission of complexity. And, maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas — that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it; and what is also true is that the occupation [sic] and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable . . . So, if you want to solve the problem, you have to take in the whole truth, and you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree.
But, what Dershowitz was specifically reacting to were Obama's recent remarks at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum.
There, Obama called for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict while also ambiguously calling for an end to "occupation."
Obama said:
All of this is taking place against the backdrop of decades of failure to achieve a durable peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. One that is based on genuine security for Israel, a recognition of its right to exist, and a peace that is based on an end of the occupation and the creation of a viable state and self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Dershowitz, during his Fox appearance, took issue with Obama's remarks, particularly the idea that there is any sort of equivalency between what Israel has done and what Hamas has done.
Dershowitz said:
To compare those disputed claims with the rapes, beheadings, burnings, kidnappings, it's just obscene and despicable. And, what it does is it lends support to those students basically, who are saying, "Well, what Hamas really did was not so bad... It was in response to the occupation." Although he said that the attacks by Hamas are not justifiable, he made them justifiable because, if life really is unbearable, as it's not, then you can do anything you want.
Accordingly, Dershowitz accused Obama of exacerbating the problem, and Dershowitz argued that this could lead to not only problems for Israel but problems for America as well.
"What he did was contribute to the risks to not only Israelis but Americans, because it's coming to a theater near you," Dershowitz said.
He added, "If Hamas is not stopped in its tracks from doing the terrorist acts, they will bring them to the United States."
