Dersh & the (alleged) pervy billionaire
New York Post [Page Six] - June 21, 2007
Blame Game
DID legal eagle Alan Dershowitz and alleged pervy billionaire Jeffrey
Epstein use their clout to get a speech canceled at Harvard? That’s
the belief of Rutgers University biologist Robert Trivers, whose talk
at Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics (PED) was axed after
he called Dershowitz a “Nazi-like apologist” for his “rationalization
of Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians.” Trivers told the Harvard
Crimson a PED official said he was “sworn to secrecy” about who
pulled the plug. But Trivers blames Dershowitz, who sits as a faculty
affiliate on PED, or Epstein, who donated $6.5 million to create PED
and has retained Dershowitz as a defense lawyer against his 2006
indictment for soliciting underage prostitutes. Epstein’s lawyer,
Gerald Lefcourt, had no comment. Dershowitz told us Trivers “has a
reputation as a barroom brawler and has threatened to beat me up”-
but he insisted he had nothing to do with the cancellation.
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I am a Jew and I know of many of my relatives who perished in the tragedies of the last century. I have read and heard Bob Trivers’ recent comments about Alan Dershowitz and I agree with Trivers’ statements and position on the situations that exists in the world today that threaten to undermine the already poor quality of life to the least fortunate among us.
I have known Bob Trivers for more then 25 years. He does not have a reputation as a bar room brawler. He has verve, passion and a commitment to work, knowledge and human relationships that was properly recognized in the bestowing upon him of the foremost accolade and recognition in his field of biology, the Crafoord Prize given by essentially the Nobel Prize Committee. This is not a casual or lightly bestowed recognition.
Bob Trivers is a brilliant and out spoken scientist who has been on the cutting edge of his field and at the forefront of social issues all of his life. When I was a student at UC Santa Cruz I worked for Bob. When he would go to Berkeley to give talks he was physically assaulted by female homosexuals who believed that his work and ideas undermined their limited and biased conceptions about the proper world order. There is a parallel in past actions of “Dikes on Bikes” to the positions and actions which Alan Dershowitz had taken in regards to Bob Trivers’ talk at Harvard and the after math of that shameful moment Mr. Dershowitz’s public life.
In the past that kind of opposition did not deter Bob from going ahead with his speaking and efforts to help others understand his insights into the evolutionary and genetic basis of fundamental relationships in nature that ultimately are the most important questions each human being faces in the conduct of their lives. His ground breaking work is in such areas as the inheritance of altruistic behavior, mate choice and sexual selection, symmetry and the human basis of aesthetics and the area he was researching when I had the privilege of working for him, deceit and self deception in animal human and social systems.
A public apology by Mr. Dershowitz is in order. “Make me a table before you in the presence of mine enemies” would be a proper resolution to this situation. I propose a public dinner and breaking of bread with the key players in this social melodrama to show the world a better way to resolve conflict such as are presented in this dispute. Might I suggest this Friday night would be a good time.