Jewish Blood Is No Longer Cheap

Professor Alan Dershowitz calls upon the Jewish people to rise up in order to prevent recurrences of past tragedies—to learn the lessons of tragic miscalculations, try hard to anticipate the future, and act to influence it in real time. To assure “never again,” he argues that Jews and their nation-state Israel must undertake preventative and preemptive measures and not rely only on reacting to dangers that are clear and present. Failure to see parallels to past disasters or to take preventive measures increases the likelihood of comparable horrors, currently or in the future. Striking an appropriate balance is desirable, but the crucial lesson of Jewish history is that if mistakes are inevitable, and they generally are, it is better—or at least less worse—to err on the side of overreacting than underreacting to impending existential threats.