Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Pied Piper Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart has written a new book, The Crisis of Zionism. In it he attempts to tear apart the relationship of admiration, support and defense that has existed between Israel and American Jewry for over a century. According to his ideological worldview, there is a “deep chasm” between the Jewish social justice tradition, as he understands it, and the American Jewish Establishment when it comes to Israel. That community sent its children to the American South to help the blacks and balances that with the assertion that “millions of West Bank Palestinians are denied rights simply because they are not Jews.” He pits Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against President Barack Obama as one who rejects the tradition revered by Obama. He warns against the dying of a dream of a democratic Jewish state while American Jews watch. Coincidentally, the book will be released at this year's J Street National Conference which is also promoting an "we doubt Iran's threat" theme.


For Beinart, “only by giving Palestinians their own country in the West Bank and Gaza Strip can Israel again become a Jewish state that offers the right of citizenship to all the people within its domain.” He portrays himself, his agenda and his polices as upholding the ”honor of the Jewish people in our time.”

Beinart, of course, does not only write books but pens op-eds and recently tried to deny Iran’s threat to Israel, trying to parallel the situation America went through with the Iraq war and the no weapons of mass destruction, although he leaves himself an escape route by adding “The point is not that an Iranian nuclear weapon poses no threat to Israel”. What bothers him is that there seem to be security experts who deny Iran’s threat but that no one is listening to them, that there is “a struggle between people who think practically and people who think ideologically, between people trying to soberly assess a given adversary”.

I am not sure who is scaring Beinart more, Netanyahu or US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta who declared last week that if Iran does not change course, the US is "prepared to respond if we have to", reiterating that all U.S. options are on the table, implying the possibility of using military force.

Beinart, to my mind, is a reborn version of the coercive utopian, so ably described and criticized in the 1984 book by Rael Jean Isaac and her husband Eric. He broke into public consciousness at the debate conducted on April 29th with Yossi Klein Halevi which followed the publishing of his New York Review of Books piece in May 2010. In that essay he posited that mainstream American Jewish organizations hew to a liberal vision of Zionism but willingly support a near-fascist Israel where democracy is crumbling. His target is American Jewish youth who are the real victims of that establishment having been under-educated to the history of Zionism and its conflict with the Arabs of Eretz-Israel.

Beinart is a Pied Piper who himself is ideological. His hooking up with J Street is most natural. Unfortunately, he is playing a tune that is detached from the reality of the Middle East as it is from what genuine Jewish nationalism is. Beinart’s claims of loyalty to Israel notwithstanding, he fealty, I am convinced, is to his liberal and American identity foremost. In the end, his music is quite off-key.

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Reminds us of Joe Klein:

It’s one thing to just adore Israel, as the evangelical Christians do; it’s another thing entirely to send American kids off to war, yet again, to fight for Israel’s national security.”


UPDATE

Harsher IAEA report on Iran nuclear program expected next month

Upcoming follow-up report apparently includes new details about efforts by Tehran to develop nuclear warheads for ground-to-ground missiles.

UPDATE II



“Beinart,” Pollak added, “is not actually outraged that the Palestinians don’t have a state. He’s cynically using them—just as J Street does—as a means to spread lies and hatred against Israel and sell copies of his book.”


“So long as J Street and Beinart and their allies on the left employ rhetoric that draws parallels between Israel and the segregated South, they will not be taken seriously by people who matter on the Hill, in the [Obama] administration, or within the mainstream pro-Israel community,” said a source on Capitol Hill. “It is sad that Peter Beinart went from a respected intellectual on these issues to someone who provides cover for fringe ideas on the left.”

^

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What did you think of Adi Mintz's presentation at Herzliya?

http://www.herzliyaconference.org/eng/?CategoryID=478&ArticleID=2327

Gaza to be relocated to Asia, Refugees to be accepted by Egypt and Jordan, the only just solution. I thought it was great.

Anonymous said...

Dershowitz, God has a message for you, "ITS NOT TO LATE", "THE BOOK HAS NOT MORPHED INTO ITS FINALE FORM..EZ:9-4..NOTHING CARVED IN GRANITE, YET". Being a Jew you have felt at times their were certain things Jews were privy to that no one else could claim? That you were special, privileged and that certain promises were made that were only applicable to your race. My personal opinion, Allen, it that you walk on water. I have a profound respect for your race (Israeli) and for your legal prowess,but, God is saying in reference to you, "to much is given much is required", not in the sense that Obama misquoted him...Allen, God is referencing your race, and I.Q. The spawn of the Aclu, the blaspheming Barnys, the "Islamic Weiners" and their ilk were birthed from your form of legal governing. As a side note, God just said, "He still loves Barny and Anthony, but when the book is closed their destinys will be fixed. REPENT!" Their is one scripture that is applicable to Jews that no one else can claim. Ez20:34-35..I will bring you into the wilderness and I will plead my case with you FACE TO FACE...you will pass under the rod of wrath and I will purge from amoung you the rebels and those who transgress against me. Sounds like he is going to seperate the seed of abraham from the seed of the serpent. Dershowitz, God said, " the plumb line, of judgement, is stretched tighter and higher for you". Your kind cultivated the legal principles which lead the Barny/Weiners of the world to the cliff. Don't get mad at me I'm only writing what God is speaking. ACTIONS on your part will be reqired, not just repentance. I was going to be more explicit but God said you would understand. He referenced blood on your hands and something to the effect..better address those isssues NOW rather than LATER. He wants you to purvey some Godly wisdom to your secular, anti-God, anti-Christian cohorts. Bring to their attention Ez9:4, even though they will not believe it, they SOON WILL.

Anonymous said...

Clairification of Ez9:4 mark. This is not the mark the rest of the world is forced to take by Islam and the western civilizations. The mark that is placed on deserving rightous Jews will be the mark of God not the mark of the beast. I call it the mark of the best.These Jews will then be supernaturally protected as they warn the Jewish people not to take the mark of the beast. This does upset the powers that be but they cannot kill them because they are devinely protected. Their orders are to warn Israel first, the Jews of the world 2nd, and then the gentiles worldwide. At the time Israel is ordered by the beast to take the mark, they have a parting of the way with the western world. By taking the beasts mark, you deny your God, and eliminate yourself as children of Abraham and become sole property of the beast. Similar to what is happening to the Catholic Church in the U.S., as we speak. Those demands are also made on China and Russia at the same time. They are told to mark their people or they cannot buy or sell. At that time the Chinese and the Russians decide to war with the Beast. As they start saber rattling with the western world it will provide Israel precious time to prepare a strategy for survival. My next article will address a Secular Jewish conspiracy to eliminate the Religious Jews. Take heed! They were very successful at eliminating Christianity in the U.S. It had the unanticipated effect of creating a monster who is now currently biting them in the butt.

Anonymous said...

Now the liberal Jews, the Aclu and Hollywood basically made a covenate with the devil to eliminate any form of morality and religion, but they failed to read the fine print. That fine print stipulated for services rendered he would have the right to destroy the U.S. and Israel. Now they are faced with a delimma, now that it appears most certain the U.S. is going to be destroyed, where do we move? Hollywood is moving to China and most Liberal Jews are jumping ship, they have to find a country to move to. Canada has pasted a law recognizing Israel as a nation and will not tolerate persecution of the Jews. Their will be a hugh migration to Canada. My guess is they will attempt to save Israel because most of them want to move to their culturally identified country. If they do find a place of rest will they continue dealing with the devil or will they turn to their religious roots? Time will tell.