Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Peter Beinart Is Wrong About American Jews

molto interessante
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aitan-goelman/crisis-of-zionism-review_b_1528756.html
 
 
American Jews have become overly-tribal, abandoned traditional values
and are increasingly willing to accept illegal and illiberal activity
on the part of Israel. That is, according to a segment of the U.S.
Jewish community whose voice is expressed in a controversial new book,
The Crisis of Zionism, by Peter Beinart.
 
According to Beinart, this failure to reckon with what he
characterizes as Israel's increasingly illiberal policies is leading
to the alienation of young, non-Orthodox American Jews, the
overwhelming majority of whom are liberal. While no doubt sincerely
held, the view being championed by Beinart is deeply unfair to both
Israel and American Jewry.
 
Consider the large, venerable, and fairly typical Conservative
synagogue to which both Beinart and I sent our children for preschool.
(Full disclosure: Peter's son and my daughter were in the same class
as 3-year-olds, and were briefly betrothed, an engagement that ended
amicably when the Beinarts left Washington.) For most of the last
several years the front of the synagogue carried a banner proclaiming
support for Israel. There has also been organized congregational
support for any number of programs against hunger, homelessness,
poverty and global warming. Since 2008, many cars in the parking lot
featured Obama bumper stickers, and I've literally never seen a
Republican bumper sticker. Here, there certainly is no evidence of the
triumph of tribalism over liberalism.
 
And contrary to Beinart's charge, American Jews' support for liberal
values extends to Israel. Certainly there are deeply illiberal
currents in Israeli society, not the least of which is a regressive
and politically powerful ultra-Orthodox sector. But mainstream
American Jewish organizations have consistently (and sometimes even
effectively) challenged these forces. For example, some of the most
important decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court striking down
governmental actions that violate the human rights guaranteed in
Israel's Basic Laws (a kind of exoskeleton Constitution) were the
result of petitions brought by the Israeli branches of mainstream
American Jewish organizations. Although Beinart extols these judicial
opinions, he neglects to mention the role played by the much
criticized American Jewish "establishment" in achieving them.
 
There are areas where most American Jewish organizations are hesitant
to criticize Israel, security chief amongst them. American Jews are
aware that they are not the ones who will have to live with the
consequences of any security compromises made by Israel. It is not, as
Beinart charges, that American Jews are ignorant of or unsympathetic
to West Bank Palestinians whose lives are made more difficult by
roadblocks or the separation wall/fence. It is rather the recognition
that, if suicide bombings in restaurants and shopping malls in Israel
resume, it is not our families who will be in danger.
 
In recognizing this argument, Beinart points out that American Jews
weigh in on lots of issues in places where they don't live, and that
under this rationale, New Yorkers would not be able to "criticize
Arizona's harsh immigration laws when they don't live near the Mexican
border." This analogy is utterly unconvincing. Until undocumented
Mexicans begin blowing themselves up in cafes, there can be no
comparison between the relative price of a misjudgment in those two
contexts.
 
Beinart also draws the wrong conclusion from the overwhelming support
that President Obama enjoys among American Jews. According to Beinart,
Obama's ability to win almost 80 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008 is
"a remarkable testament to the gulf between American Jewry and many of
its communal leaders." More specifically, Beinart believes that while
these leaders of mainstream Jewish organizations exhibit kneejerk
support for policies of the Israeli government, most American Jews,
especially younger and non-Orthodox American Jews, are more attached
to their liberal, universalistic ideals than to the Jewish State.
 
But isn't it infinitely more likely that American Jews overwhelmingly
support the President not because they've chosen their liberalism over
their support for Israel, but because they don't believe that they
have to choose, seeing Obama (accurately, in my opinion) as someone
who has been broadly supportive of Israel?
 
It is true that, after initially confronting Israel on the issue of
settlements, Obama has de-emphasized this area of disagreement. But
while Beinart bemoans this as a humiliating abdication of Obama's
"true" beliefs in the face of a vicious, almost hysterical, onslaught
from the purportedly right-wing Jewish establishment, this
interpretation doesn't make a lot of sense. Even assuming that Obama's
genuine convictions on the issue are as divined by Beinart, and even
assuming that Obama's shift was entirely the result of political
considerations, this likely reflects his desire to maintain support
among the 78 percent of American Jews who voted for him in 2008. After
all, the right-wing Jews who are Beinart's bogeymen are never going to
support Obama.
 
It could also be that Obama's pivot wasn't entirely political and was
in due, at least in part, to a realization that an obsessive focus on
settlements was a mistake, and that, while continued building in
Israeli settlements in the West Bank is a terrible idea, it's not what
prevents consummation of a comprehensive peace agreement.
 
Beinart's book has generated intense debate for its criticism of
Israel. But his indictment of mainstream American Jewry is just as
unfair. Contrary to Beinart's thesis, American Jews need not -- and
most have not -- checked their liberalism at the door in order to
maintain unwavering support for the Jewish State.
 

 molto interessante
 
vi fa trottare, eh...:D

 vi
 
scusa, hai detto qualcosa?

 TROT-TROT-TROT-TROT
 
continua pure...