Alan Dershowitz
Alan DershowitzReuters

US President Barack Obama has shown blatant hypocrisy when it comes to Israel, renowned Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz noted in a scathing op-ed Tuesday - with double standards on giving and receiving criticism from other nations. 

Obama sparked uproar when criticizing, and issuing veiled threats over, Britain's possible exit from the European Union (EU) this week during a visit to the United Kingdom.

The POTUS defended his remarks by saying that democratic nations should be free to speak their minds openly - yet Obama himself attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for rejecting the Iran deal during his visit to the US, and indeed snubbed Netanyahu during that visit, in March 2015. 

"Recall how outraged the same President Obama was when the prime minister of a friendly country, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke his mind about the Iran Deal," Dershowitz noted, on a Fox News op-ed. "So what is it, Mr. President? Should friends speak their minds about controversial issues when visiting another country, or should they keep their views to themselves? Or is your answer that friends should speak their minds only when they agree with other friends, but not when they disagree?"

"Such a view would skew the market place of ideas beyond recognition," he added. 

Dershowitz continued that "the president owes the American people, and Benjamin Netanyahu, an explanation for his apparent hypocrisy and inconsistency." 

"Let there be one rule that covers all friends – not one for those with whom you agree and another for those with whom you disagree.  For me the better rule is open dialogue among friends on all issues of mutual importance," he concluded. "Under this rule, which President Obama now seems to accept, he should have welcomed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s advocacy before Congress, instead of condemning it."