The day he published his 2010 essay in the New York Review of Books castigating the American Jewish establishment for too-strong support of Israel, Peter Beinart tweeted that it was the “hardest thing I’ve ever written.” As Noah Pollak noted at the time, there was nothing easier than Beinart’s criticism; there was already a wide market for it within the media.
Beinart subsequently received a book deal from Times Books, the publishing arm of the New York Times, and the book will be published next month. Last week, he circulated an email that Rabbi David Wolpe describes as “an end zone dance, a strutting lack of humility.” Here is the beginning of Beinart’s email:
Sometimes you get lucky.
I’ve spent the last year writing a new book, The Crisis of Zionism. It tells the story of how a young Barack Obama fell in love with the Jewish social justice tradition, only to discover the deep chasm between that tradition and the American Jewish Establishment when it comes to Israel.
It tells the story of an Israeli Prime Minister who rejects the very tradition that Obama reveres.
Finally, it offers an agenda for what American Jews — especially young American Jews — must do if we don’t want to be the generation that watches the dream of a democratic Jewish state die.
And that’s where I get lucky. Because by a wonderful convergence of events, the book will be released at this year’s J Street National Conference. …
The assertion that the Israeli prime minister (along with the American Jewish establishment) “rejects” the Jewish social justice tradition that Barack Obama “reveres” (ever since he “fell in love” with it at summer camp) lacks a certain nuance and subtlety. And the email goes on from there.
Rabbi Wolpe provides a substantive rebuttal of the email – particularly its invocation of the American civil rights movement as an analogy for those who rain rockets on children in Sderot – and offers some rabbinic wisdom for Beinart’s “smug dismissal” of Israel’s democratic leadership. He describes the email as “demagoguery” and suggests that Beinart is “better than this.”
It is a fairly low bar. But if the email is any indication, the coming book will exhibit the same lack of proportionality that Jeffrey Goldberg suggested in his 2010 interview of Beinart. Goldberg noted “the unseemly interest the left takes in Israel’s moral failings,” which ignores the fact that no other country does “a better job of protecting individual rights and freedoms while at war with a foe that seeks its physical elimination,” and he pressed Beinart to put the criticisms in his essay in context:
Are Israel’s failings, in fact, so terrible, especially given the line-up of enemies Israel is facing? I’m asking you to confront reality, not your utopian vision of what a Jewish country should be. The reality is that there are organizations and countries trying to physically eliminate the Jewish state. Even with this existential problem, Israel still manages to be the freest and most democratic state in the Middle East, and one that even grants its Muslim citizens the right to build minarets and wear burqas, unlike many countries in Europe. Again, I’m asking about proportionality. … [V]ery little (the settlements, etc.) is actually that different than it was five or ten years ago, except that Israel removed its settlements from Gaza and got rockets in return. …
[Muslim extremists] are pointing 40,000 rockets at Israel from Lebanon right now — and they are not pointing these rockets at Israel in order to bring about the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank. They are seeking the physical destruction of 5.5 million Jews in their historic homeland. I take this seriously, and I think you should take it seriously, as well. …You don’t have to be an Israeli extremist to believe that the Arab side is not especially enamored with the ideas of peace and compromise, despite the existence of Salam Fayyad and other Palestinian moderates. Perhaps we here in America should take these Israeli concerns more seriously, and have more respect for the hard-earned experience of Israelis.
Beinart’s email suggests he has gotten over his hand-wringing about the “hardest thing I’ve ever written.” He is positively giddy about the book-length version. What luck.
The juicebox brats should spend their summer camp in Damascus. yeah yeah the "social justice tradition of Erdogan. but really, who cares? Israel is a big grown-up nation and will get past Beinhart, well, if anybody there knew who he was or cared. But they don't and wouldn't. Another Sammy Glick parvenue for the Occupy set. Fifty years ago he would have been plugging Paul Anka 45s for cash and blow. The hustlers come and go. This too shall pass.
You dismiss too readily, best2003. It matters. Beinart is trying, successfully, to weaken Jewish support for Israel. Of course "this too shall pass"–but that is not the point. The Gaza Flotilla will also pass. So will the BDS movement. So will efforts to delegitimize Israel legally. So will a million other things pass. But if we were to take your advice and ignore them, it would leave Israel seriously weakened. Rather than dismissing Beinart and his ilk, he needs to be confronted and refuted.
BDZ, I think we make a mistake in defining our Judaism progessively (and then, obsessively) through the lens of negative opposition to her enemies, distracted by each pisher that comes along to be feted by the malicious and the stupid. Are the DailyKos and HuffingtonPost mafias mortal dangers now? hmmmm. Not yet probably. One antidote to the Beinarts and their admirers in the poltical scene generally is a recommitment to positive forms of identification, study or mitzvas or living each day with a deeper appreciation of the blessings of life etc.. Particularly, imo, in this instance as Beinart and his ilk really are just snot-nosed punks. Fed on self-esteem and rosy cheeked with the baby fat of the eternal wunderkind. The moser gets up in the courtyard and crows, I was really good in that disputation wasn't I? Well, whatever else we might say, Talmudic analysis of his shtut is wasted on him *and* his admirers. Short of a sound thrashing the effort just adds to the world's expanding reserve of entropy.
Your characterization of Beinart and his ilk is spot on, but I look at it a little differently. There is a wave of sorts building against Israel. Call it a Zeitgheist, call it a political movement, call it a cycle of opinion, but it is there. It can be very damaging to Israel in the political world, which in turn can hurt it in the real world. Merely a positive form of identification, study of mitzvahs or living each day with a deeper appreciation of the blessings of life, is VERY important, but it is not enough. Concrete things must be done as well. AIPAC helps. Building connections with like minded Christians helps (i've witness some amazing things from our Christian friends). And yes, as painful as it is, pushing back against the Beinart's of the world helps, too. If you don't, then the world starts to think they are right. And that will have an impact.
I agree with you that Jews need to defend Jews. But I honestly think that the Beinarts start pushing buttons and our self-defense, our resistance can become inefficient, unstrategic, and self-defeating. Put another way, I know good Jews, wonderful Jews, some religious, some not, who, gasp shudder, maintain ties with, Democrats and Obama. And they are still Zionists. But we see the hope-and-changey bs of a Beinart who starts making comparisons and drawing lessons Obama himself would not make and there we go, against Beinart, against Obama and, I think we can overlook alternatives that, if not as idealistic may bear fruit in helping Israel. It is just as valuable to be one of the voices persuading, yes, Obama (who could very well be President for four more years) that he needs a little more Dennis Ross on his shoulder and a lot less of the Beinarts than part of the crowd who is focused only on combatting and replacing the entire Bineart-Obama perceived continuum with a new crowd that may not be in the cards.
Allow me to add my small contribution to your analysis. BDZ, unfortunately, falls into the same trap that many Americna jews fall into,namely, that Israel' s existence depends upon the United States. Thank God, this was never the case and certainly not today. Even if the US withdraws all its support, Israel would go on pretty well ,maybe even better, having finally gotten off the American teat. nPeter beinart is totally insignificant and, may I add, so is American Jewry. Israel is a grown up now and if American Jews will cut their ties to Israel, Israel will survive and thrive while that part of American Jewry that becomes anti-zionist (sadly, mainly Reform and secular jewry) will disappear and lose all its influence.
I think American Jews grounded in faith and knowledge can help. But yes, I believe that also in the end Israel is all grown up now and must stand on its own and God willing will survive even should America walk away. Though it is right to contest those who would walk away or push the United States into outright anti-Israel hostility. And support Israel. So I think that American Jews might be able to surprise you and there might be allies where it might appear on first glance, there is but one big Reform post-Zionist diversity wasteland. Peter? feh.
There's no such thing as social justice; there's just justice. n nMy Christian friends are discovering the same thing right now – there's no social gospel; there's just the Gospel. n nThe fictions are made up to fool you into errors in the name of good. n nChristopher Lasch pointed out in "The Culture of Narcissism" that a lot of perfectly fine things are ruined by having the word "self" attached to them; the same can be said of the word "social."
Well we used to say "Don't throw yourself on their mercy, it's a small target"
It is a multi-faceted problem that includes intermarriage, families with too few children (if any), excessive post-secondary education, religious (Hebrew) school curricula that refuses to teach Jewish kids knowledge of the history of the Jewish people, and pride in our heritage, and that we are, indeed, a people, i.e., a Jewish Nation. n nThe sum total of all of this very destructive nonsense is that we have many individuals, who call themselves Jewish and/or claim a right to criticize, but who essentially know nothing about reality, Jewish and Israeli history, have no allegiance to the Jewish people, have no common sense, and they have huge amounts of insecurity. n nI would rather associate with a poor, hard-working uneducated Jewish individual who is aware, and proud, of his connection, and commitment, to the Jewish people, than be with an over-educated, insecure fool who has no respect for his heritage, or forbears whose devotion is so callously, generations later, cast aside.
all we need to know about the contents of Beinart's book is that it "will be released at this year’s J Street National Conference." what the heck do you expect it to say? Jews bad, Arabs, good. West bad, East good. n nfor these self-hating Jews and their Muslim enablers (or maybe it's the other way round) Israel will always be in the wrong. it will never be allowed to defend itself lest it be accused of "disproportionate force." the 3,000-year-old history of Jews in Israel is set aside and Jerusalem is suddenly a Muslim holy city. Palestinian Arabs, who didn't even exist as a people before the 20th century, are suddenly thought of as the "rightful" owners of the land. n nit's ridiculous, and all we can do is continue speaking the truth and hope someone listens. n nas for Beinart, I wish him the same fate as I wish Roger Cohen, Tommy Friedman, and the rest of the self-hating Jews–but I just remembered commentary's posting rules so I think I won't tell you what that would be.