Alan Dershowitz Speaks to Fascinating Similarities Between Founding of America, Israel

Tuesday’s edition of “The Tony Kinnett Cast” featured a special guest, Alan Dershowitz. The attorney was there to discuss his book, “Founding Fathers and One Jewish Mother: The Documents and People Who Established the US and Israel.”

Dershowitz shared with host Tony Kinnett that the book is based on his personal archive of documents he’s been collecting for over 50 years, including copies of America’s founding documents and handwritten letters by Founding Fathers. He also has letters from figures central to Israel.

“So what I do is make a comparison between the founding parents of America, all of whom were men, and the founding parents of Israel that included [Prime Minister] Golda Meir, the one Jewish mother,” he explained.

The interview touched upon modern-day applications as well, with Kinnett lamenting about “people who are making up these imaginative histories that seem more based on emotion and feeling than they actually do any of what we might learn from historical documents.”

Dershowitz spoke of “dishonest framing of pseudo history to fit a narrative,” which is also “being used about Israel today,” including on narratives about a two-state solution, which Palestinians repeatedly rejected. “They don’t want a Palestinian state they just want there not to be a Jewish state,” he made clear.

Given that “neither country was founded bloodlessly,” Dershowitz reminded that they are “never going to be perfect,” though “the perfections so outweigh the imperfections that anyone reading it will be proud to be a supporter of America and a proud supporter of Israel.”

The nature of democracy and compromises were also addressed.

“Both were essentially democratic although the founders of the United States never used the term ‘democratic,'” Dershowitz continued. “Israel was founded as a vibrant democracy,” though there were still disagreements.

“There’s always going to be disagreement, but they’re both democracies and as long as democracies can talk to people on all sides, I think we have a basis for governance,” Dershowitz offered, though he warned of the threat of extremists.

The interview closed on the influence of the current education system. Kinnett stressed the need for parents to understand the importance of sharing narratives with their children.

Dershowitz noted it’s “much harder to be a parent today” with children relying on social media. “I think the greatest failings in America, though, are in universities,” Dershowitz continued, warning about the “second rate” level of Harvard and the “mediocrity” of Harvard Law, where he was a professor.

“They used to be great places, no longer. They have become totally overtaken by wokeness, political correctness, DEI, and they are in the process of destroying great universities. And we’re going to see China take over intellectual leadership of the world because Harvard University is no longer a world leader,” he warned.

“Again, the consequences of the abandonment of the Western civilization fathers, and I don’t just mean the fathers of our history but the fathers of our families,” Kinnett concluded.

“Founding Fathers and One Jewish Mother” was released on July 21.