Mr Dershowitz forgets that ANY historical event can be questioned as to its truthfulness. The story of the holocaust has changed quite a bit in sixty years. Things believed in about the holocaust years ago would be have been holocaust denial now. Soap out of Jews? FALSE, Lampshades out of human flesh? FALSE, Human Gassings at DACHAU, OR Treblinka?" FALSE. I could go on and on.

How many books written about the holocaust have been proved to be false at this moment? So to make these statements about the holocaust as being "hate speech" is a viewpoint of an idiot. As Americans we have EVERY right to question ANY event in history. Be it the Bible or the Holocaust. Unfortunately the Holocaust has been put on a pedestal higher than the Bible. I have more disrespect for Alan Dershowitz than any person who questions the Holocaust. I would suggest a good place for asking questions about the Holocaust would be at Nazigassings.com.

Second: it is doubtless true that all those who deny the holocaust are anti-semites; not all anti-semites deny the happening of the holocaust

Third: part of two, above, is the very flexible definition of "anti-semite" employed in the Canadian and American press (I can't read German and/or French well enough to detect nuances in those languages)

Fourth: Alan Dershowitz, and others, have been quick to label those who do not agree with the policies of the State of Israel vis-a-vis the occupied territories and its inhabitants (not the post-1967 squatters sanctioned by the government)

Hate speech, whether it is Holocaust denial or anything else, should not be a concept sanctioned by American constitutional law. So far, it goes only to increase the sanctions imposed upon those convicted of some underlying crime, but – and this seems to be where AD and his fans want to go (and as the Europeans have gone) and that is to make hate speech a crime in and of itself.

I would rather live in a country that does not recognize something characterized as "hate speech" than one that does – because this generation's hate speech (Holocaust denial) could become the next one's (it is almost there already – read everything Dershowitz has written with care) is the denial that the policies of the State of Israel are necessarily congruent with the interests of the United States of American

Facebook has the right to regulate its content because it's a private company. (for now…the way this stuff is going….)

I just don't see any other reason towards denying a part of human history.

That said, the only argument I've heard that attempts to dissociate Holocaust denial from antisemitism is from Noam Chomsky, and it's not a very strong argument, as Professor Chomsky has to invoke Martians in order to make his case, and seems to expect his readers to take it on faith that he's an expert on Martians.

Since I am not an expert on Martians, however, I will just point out that Facebook has a policy on hate-speech, and has created a loop-hole that allows some forms of anti-Semitism to escape this policy.

He could help the cause greatly.