Peter Beinart

Criticism of Israel or Israeli policies is something which tends to bring swift rebuttals and charges of being anti-Semetic if from a gentile, or of being a self-hating Jew if Jewish. So Beinart's book, "The Crisis of Zionism" is somewhat provocative in nature by stating that the Zionist dream of a Jewish state under democratic ideals is being challenged by the on-going settlement policy in the West Bank. Beinart looks at the West Bank as "non-democratic Israel", separate and distinct from the genuine democracy existing within the green line of Israel proper. The long standing control over the Occupied Territories, and continued settlement expansion in the West Bank leads to two classes of people, citizens of Israel, and non-citizens, those with full rights and those without. He argues that Israel's Jewish character is incompatible with its democratic nature if Israel continues to rule over millions of Palestinians without full rights of citizenship. The current on-going expansion of settlement policy is a long-term demographic threat to Israel's security and standing as a democratic state.

He also points out that the younger generation of Jews in the United States have a much lesser attachment to the State of Israel than the older generation, partly because of never living under the fears of the Holocaust and rampant anti-Semitism, and partly perhaps due to hard line policies of the current leadership in Israel. A lessening attachment for the state of Israel and the Zionist movement by the younger generation of Jews should be of concern to those concerned with the future of Israel. Beinart's book has been criticized by many on the conservative right, but his point seems to be to inspire American Jews to become more active in defense of a democratic principles in Israel before it's too late.… (mehr)

Beinart’s thesis is that right-wing wealthy and aging Jews, who don’t share the liberal views of most American Jews, have distorted American policy towards Israel to the detriment of both countries, emboldening hard-liners in Israel to deny any legitimate Palestinian claims and suppressing criticism even from within Israel. Meanwhile, non-Orthodox American Jews are likely to identify as liberals first and Jews second, so policy towards Israel is less important to them. Beinart suggests that Jews should embrace voucher schools (!) so that non-Orthodox Jews will be more likely to see Israel as central to their identities, less likely to intermarry, and correspondingly more likely to exert pressure on American policymakers to seek solutions that will allow Israel to be both democratic and Jewish (and, of necessity, smaller, since those two things can’t happen with Israel’s present borders). I guess I’m one of those liberals first, because I can’t stomach the thought of having a nation of Louisiana’s creationist voucher schools in order to get more Jewish education (not that the people behind vouchers are terribly willing to let non-Christians in on the party, though I suppose we’re ‘Judeo-Christians’ until the Muslim threat disappears). Still, Beinart does issue a wake-up call to American Jews whose views are not represented by Sheldon Adelson.… (mehr)