Former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz rejected claims from some critics that those who commit terror acts are driven by poverty and oppression on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program Tuesday.
"To hear people try to be sympathetic to the terrorists, saying, 'Oh, they grew up poor. They had no opportunity.' That is total nonsense. A lot of these terrorists are well-educated. They're wealthy. They've had every opportunity. They've been welcomed to countries like Great Britain, educated, welcomed to the United States," Dershowitz said.
"This is not about poverty. This is not about disenfranchisement. This is about a culture and ideology that supports (terror acts) from the very, very top down," he said.
Dershowitz slammed the Palestinian Authority for its support of those who commit terror acts. "One of the worst offenders is the Palestinian Authority and (Palestinian president Mahmoud) Abbas that rewards — has a statute, a law on its book — giving rewards to the families of terrorists," he said.
"Inevitably, there are going to be civilian casualties when you attack terrorist groups that purposefully embed themselves among civilians. And that's always a very heavy cost. But it's a cost that we have to incur, because it's their civilians versus our civilians."
The former Harvard professor said the Islam religion is not to blame. "It's not Islam, it's the abuse of Islam."
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