Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Beinart’s misread of Zionism and US Jewry

Isi Liebler
 
In June 2011, Peter Beinart, a former editor of the staunchly pro-
Israel New Republic, published a controversial essay in the left wing
New York Review of Books, headlined “The failure of the American
Jewish Establishment.” The article was a scathing condemnation of
Israeli policies which, he alleged, were undermining democracy and
violating human rights. He accused American Jewish leaders of
slavishly toeing “extreme right-wing Israeli positions” and “refusing
to defend democracy in the Jewish state.”
 
Beinart’s essay transformed him overnight into a darling of the Left-
liberal establishment and media that abhors the Netanyahu government.
He was feted as a courageous Jewish writer willing to stand up and
castigate both Israeli and American Jewish leaders.
 
Presumably overwhelmed by the adoration showered upon him, Beinart has
now expanded his essay into a full-length book based on the standard
stereotypes and fallacies shared by most hostile far Left and
“liberal” critics of Israel. Titled “The Crisis of Zionism,” it is
scheduled for release next month.
 
Beinart is convinced that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is
the “great Jewish question of the age” and his central call is for
American Jews to join the choir condemning Israel.
 
He informs us that he loves Israel and would teach his children to
love it. Yet in the same breath he unequivocally condemns the Jewish
“apartheid” state for breaching human rights, depriving Palestinians
of dignity, and describes Israel’s settlement policy as a futile
effort to retain occupation in a post-colonial age. He accuses the
Israeli government of denying human rights to Palestinians “simply
because they are not Jews,” comparing their treatment to that of
African-Americans before segregation was banned.
 
Netanyahu is portrayed as the devil incarnate, who opposes peace,
regards liberalism as the special curse of the Jewish people,
inherited from his father a view of Arabs as “semi-barbaric” and
exploits Jewish victimization and the Holocaust as cynical propaganda
tools. In an effort to depict him as a right-wing extremist directing
Israel towards fascism, Beinart shamelessly quotes outdated views of
the Prime Minister even when they represent the antithesis of the
current policies he is implementing.
 
The Jewish State is far from perfect and we are entitled to have
differing views on specific areas of Israeli policy. But to insist
that the settlement issue, which relates to only a minute proportion
of the disputed territories, is the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict
is simply parroting primitive Arab propaganda. Besides, Beinart fails
to point out that both Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert offered in excess of 95% of the disputed territories to
the Palestinians, with both Arafat and Abbas rejecting the offer
without even making a counter proposal. And when Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, these territories were used to
launch missiles to terrorize Israeli civilians.
 
The most demagogic aspect of Beinart’s distorted approach of Israel is
his repeated accusations of Israel as a country consistently abusing
human rights and undermining democracy. Yet despite existential
threats from the day of its birth and harboring a substantial minority
of Arabs whose radical extremists, including Knesset members, ally
themselves with terrorists and our genocidal enemies, the Jewish State
remains one of the most vibrant democracies in the world -- an
especially stark contrast to the tyrannical Islamic states surrounding
it.
 
Israel provides universal suffrage, social services without
discrimination to all its citizens, a free press and extends freedom
of expression beyond what many other stable democracies tolerate. To
describe such a nation as verging on fascism is preposterous. We are
entitled to become enraged when bleeding heart liberals like Beinart,
basking in their New York or London salons, depict us in such a
despicably distorted manner.
 
Beinart regards Barack Obama as “America’s first Jewish president … a
man steeped in liberalism absorbed from Jewish friends in Chicago.” He
relates to the influence on Obama by the late Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf
who, in 1973 became founder and chair of Breira, a far-Left forerunner
of JStreet. Breira was dissolved in 1977. Perhaps, to some extent,
that identifies the source for the president’s loathing of the Israeli
government.
 
The bulk of Beinart’s book concentrates on denouncing American Jewish
leaders for collaborating with the “immoral” Israeli enterprise by
refusing to condemn abuses. He asserts that it is impossible to remain
a liberal while supporting the policies of right-wing Israeli
governments. ADL head Abraham Foxman is castigated for allegedly
stating “Israeli democracy should decide, American Jews should
support.” Beinart expresses contempt for AIPAC, exemplifying its bias
by its “unfair” and “obsessive” attitudes toward Human Rights Watch,
an organization publicly repudiated by its founder, due to its
frenetically biased hostility towards Israel.
 
The greatest flaw in Beinart’s thesis is the constant repetition of
the lie that “the mass of American Jews are to the Left of
organizations that speak in their name and almost always oppose U.S.
pressure on Israeli leaders and blame the Palestinians almost
exclusively for the lack of Middle East Peace.”
 
The reality is that American Jews may be liberal and traditionally
inclined to vote for the Democratic Party, but at the grassroots
level, in recent months they displayed far greater agitation than
their leaders against President Obama’s biased diplomacy against
Israel.
 
Beinart’s mantra, chanted repeatedly by the left-liberal media, is
also that despite evidence to the contrary, other than the Orthodox,
American Jewish youngsters have become alienated from Israel.
 
It may be true that most American Jews, including youngsters, are
painfully ignorant of the history of Zionism and that their knowledge
about the Jewish State remains pitiful even though Birthright and
other sponsored programs bringing young Americans to Israel are
improving the situation.
 
But despite this, even discounting the Orthodox, opinion polls taken
in recent years demonstrate that far from being alienated from Israel,
American Jews are instinctively more hawkish than Israelis. One need
only examine the annual American Jewish Committee opinion polls and
the important recent Mitchell survey undertaken by the American-
Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and The Israel Project. They reveal
that 89% of American Jewish youngsters strongly support Israel,
endorse decisions adopted by the democratically elected government of
Israel and oppose the public criticism of Israel which Beinart
advocates. In fact, the vast majority consider Israel to be the
spiritual center of the Jewish people and regard Israel as a crucial
component of their Jewish identity.
 
The reality is that “liberals” who feel alienated from Israel are
running against the grain of grassroots American Jews. They may get
more media attention, but they represent a small albeit highly vocal
minority. This is exemplified by the marginal impact of the primarily
Soros-funded JStreet.
 
Beinart “modestly” proclaims that he is upholding “the honor of the
Jewish people in our time.” His book is hailed by former Meretz leader
and current chair of the New Israel Fund as “the outstanding Zionist
statement of the 21st century” and received fulsome praise before its
release by anti-Israeli New York Times columnist Roger Cohen and the
newly appointed Jerusalem correspondent of the Times, Jodi Rudoren,
who described it as “terrific.” Not surprisingly, JStreet embraces
Beinart and will be launching his book at their forthcoming national
conference.
 
Reality on the ground and the flawed premises upon which Beinart bases
his thesis will not detract from the praise he will receive from the
Left liberal media, whose hostility against Israel has regrettably
become endemic. His book, like that of Walt and Mearsheimer, the
maligners of the Israeli lobby, will be another addition to the
growing number of volumes demonizing the Jewish state. Fortunately,
despite the misguided efforts of some Jewish leaders to invite into
the “big tent” those canvassing foreign governments to pressure the
Jewish state, the impact of people like Beinart on the Jewish
community as a whole has been marginal.

 “liberal” critics of Israel.
 
uh, liberal tra virgolette. Nahum è un pirla