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The Beinart Notebook: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Peter Beinart
A conversation about American foreign policy, Palestinian freedom and the Jewish people.
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- 2 days ago10 min
Christian Anti-Zionism
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comOur guest is Munther Isaac, a Palestinian minister and theologian based in the West Bank who runs the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice. He gained international attention for his Christmas 2023 sermon, Christ in the Rubble. We talk about Palestinian life in the West Bank, Munther’s critique of Christian Zionism, his views of Hamas and his interview with Tucker Carlson.Topics include:How Isaac’s understanding of scripture leads him to a very different worldview than American conservative Christians like Mike HuckabeeMaintaining faith in a just God in an unjust worldChristian-Islamic relations within PalestineResponding to the argument that a Muslim-dominated Palestine would oppress other religionsThe argument that resistance should be non-violentHow to think about Tucker Carlson
- 6 days ago12 min
Is a Jewish Democracy a Contradiction in Terms?
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comDan Shapiro served as ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration. He’s currently Distinguished Fellow at the Scrowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council. Shapiro and I hold very different views about what needs to happen in Israel-Palestine, so I invited him to discuss them.Topics include:Why there has been no two-state solutionShould the US have conditioned aid on an end to settlement growth?Does Israel practice apartheid?Why should a Palestinian state be demilitarized but not Israel?Why should Hamas be excluded from Palestinians elections but Ben Gvir be allowed to run in Israeli ones?How power affects what is considered realistic and fair
- 1 weeks ago17 min
A Reply to Sam Harris
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time: Friday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Munther Isaac, a Palestinian minister and theologian based in the West Bank. He gained international attention for his Christmas 2023 sermon, Christ in the Rubble. We’ll talk about Palestinian life in the West Bank, Munther’s critique of Christian Zionism, his views of Hamas and his interview with Tucker Carlson. Please join us.I also recorded a conversation with former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro, where we debated the reasons the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” didn’t produce a Palestinian state, and whether a Jewish democracy is a contradiction in terms. We’ll send that conversation to subscribers this week as well.Cited in Today’s VideoSam Harris on why he won’t debate critics of Israel.B’Tselem on Military Order 101.Salam Fayyad’s exit interview with the New York Times.Neve Gordon on “human shields.”Yoav Gallant’s statement on October 9, 2023.Things to Read(Maybe this should be obvious, but I link to articles and videos I find provocative and significant, not necessarily ones I entirely agree with.)In Jewish Currents (subscribe!), Josh Nathan-Kazis writes about how the Israel Day Parade backfired.In the New York Times, I argued that America will keep launching disastrous wars until the people who champion them are held to account.Nikole Hannah-Jones on the end of the civil rights era.Israel’s new strategy for changing global opinion.See you on Friday,PeterVIDEO TRANSCRIPT:So, there’s a guy named Sam Harris, been a pretty prominent political commentator in the U.S. for quite a few years. He really kind of specializes a lot in what he claims is the kind of thread of jihadism or Islamism to the West. And he’s also a supporter, a defender of the state of Israel.And he wrote a post a couple days ago that’s been getting a lot of attention—I’ve seen it sent around a lot—about why he won’t debate critics of Israel. His argument is that he won’t debate critics of Israel because the things that he believes are so self-evidently true that it would be a waste of time to subject them to interchange with someone who holds a different point of view. And, because Sam Harris is a pretty kind of highbrow defender of Israel, I just think it’s worth looking at the statements that he considers to be self-evident statements of fact. And you can ask yourself whether, in fact, you think they are the case or not.The first thing he claims is that you should understand the conflict in Israel-Palestine as a struggle between a free society, Israel, and jihadism. So, let’s take the first part of that equation: the idea that Israel is a free society. Sam Harris offers no evidence for this. He doesn’t quote any human rights organizations, he doesn’t quote any laws, anything, he just asserts it, ex cathedra: Israel is a free society.Okay, well, imagine you’re reading that, you’re sitting there in the West Bank. The West Bank has been under Israeli control since 1967. You’re a Palestinian. You’ve lived your entire life without citizenship in the state in which you live. A government that has life and death control over you does not give you the right to vote. You live under military law, with a 99% prosecution rate, even though your Jewish neighbors enjoy full due process as Israeli citizens. You need military permi
- 1 weeks ago12 min
“You Cease, We Fire”
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comJames Zogby is a scholar on Middle East issues and a Visiting Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi. From 2001 to 2017, he was part of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee. He was appointed by Barack Obama to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He is the founder of the Arab American Institute. Topics include:Why is Israel in constant conflict with Lebanon?What will become of Gaza and its people?The history of the fight for Palestinian rights within the Democratic PartyRight-wing opponents of Israel like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor-GreeneThe need for a new generation of presidential advisors
- 2 weeks ago9 min
A Glimpse into The Horror in Gaza
This week’s Zoom call will be at a special time: Thursday at 1 PM. Our guest will be Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and author of the new book, When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words and Wounds of Palestine. She has been sanctioned by the Trump administration, which has barred her from entering the United States and frozen her assets in the country. We’ll talk about her new book, her investigations into Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank, her views of US, European, and United Nations policy toward Israel, and about the criticisms of her. We’ll also talk about what it’s like to live under US sanctions.Special OfferThis week only, all subscribers (including free subscribers) of The Beinart Notebook get a 40 percent discount on a one-year paid subscription to Robert Wright’s Nonzero Network, a group of independent Substack voices, including mine, as well as Glenn Loury, Kaiser Kuo, and others with whom I may not always agree, but who share a commitment to intellectual honesty and reasoned analysis.Cited in Today’s VideoMuhammad Shehada’s comments about life in Gaza, in conversation with Jehad Abusalim and Adam Shatz for the London Review of Books podcast.The Israeli human rights group Gisha on Israel’s restrictions on the import of toilets—and other essential civilian goods—into Gaza.The World Health Organization on the surge of “ectoparasite infections and rodent-borne illnesses” in Gaza.Things to Read(Maybe this should be obvious, but I link to articles and videos I find provocative and significant, not necessarily ones I entirely agree with.)In Jewish Currents (subscribe!), Will Alden profiles Curt Mills, one of the intellectual architects of the anti-Israel right.See you on Thursday,PeterVIDEO TRANSCRIPT:So, there are a lot of Jews—I know some of them well myself—who are kind of both bewildered and enraged by this turn in American public opinion and in American politics against Israel, as reflected in my own city, New York, for instance, and the fact that Mayor Zohran Mamdani is the first mayor in many years not to march in the Israel Day parade, or that there’s this effort to boycott Israeli goods at this Brooklyn co-op. And there’s this sense that, kind of, why is it, people ask, many Jews ask, that there’s this fury against Israel, this rage?And the answer that’s so frequently given is that this is just an eruption of age-old antisemitism, right? A kind of return to the ancient art of Jew-hating. And of course, there is antisemitism. There is Jew-hating. Antisemitism is rising, but I just wish that some of those folks who are enraged and bewildered by this turn in public opinion, in American politics against Israel, would just spend a little bit of time looking at what Israel does, looking at what life is like for Palestinians under Israeli control.Because if you start to look even just a little, if you’re willing to open your eyes even just a little, then this anger at Israel, even this rage at Israel, and this desire to fundamentally change the way America interacts with Israel, it stops looking so pathological. It stops looking so antisemitic, because you can start to understand why people would be so upset, right?But so frequently, the people in our community who most need to look, just never look. And I just want to give one little example of what it looks like to take even a tiny peek at what it’s like to be a Palestinian under Israeli control, in this case, in Gaza. This is an extended quote from my friend Muhammad Shehada, who is from Gaza, and he was interviewed for the London Review of Books podcast by Adam Shatz in a recent episode. And I’m going to quote what Muhammad says about life in Gaza now. Muhammad says:The biggest struggle at the moment is basic shelter. Almost everyone I know is on the street. Every single member of my family, every friend that I have, every colleague, every neighbor had their homes either bombed, burned to the ground,
- 2 weeks ago10 min
“You Cannot Pick and Choose Exceptions to Your Bigotry”
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comPalestinian-American Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman recently wrote on X of former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene: “I’m tired of Palestine being used to erase every other misdeed once someone with a platform says anything for us.”Ben Lorber is the co-author of Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, and a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, who writes frequently about the American right.Topics include:Why have segments of the American right turned against Israel?Whether and how to challenge right wing hosts when progressives appear on their showsIs right-wing antisemitism influencing the left?How to talk about Israel’s undue influence on American politics without playing into antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theoriesIs it even possible at this point to disentangle Jewishness from Israel and Zionism?
- 2 weeks ago13 min
Being Israeli After the Destruction of Gaza
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comAriel Beery believes American progressives should listen more carefully to Israeli liberal Zionists. I listened to him, and asked some questions.Topics include:Is Israel a liberal democracy?Is America a Christian state like Israel is a Jewish state?Beery’s decision not to include Palestinian voices in his bookShould Palestinian refugees have the right to return?
- 3 weeks ago6 min
Condemning Settler Violence is Not Enough
This week’s Zoom call will be at our regular time, Friday at 1 PM Eastern. We will talk about how progressives should respond to the anti-Israel right. Our first guest will be Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian-American State Representative from Georgia, who in a recent comment on X about former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote, “I’m tired of Palestine being used to erase every other misdeed once someone with a platform says anything for us.” Our second guest will be Ben Lorber, co-author of Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism, and a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, who writes frequently about the American right. Join us.Ask Me AnythingThis Tuesday, May 26, at 1 PM Eastern, we will hold an Ask Me Anything session, for PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Cited in Today’s VideoB’Tselem’s report, Settler Violence = State Violence.Things to Read(Maybe this should be obvious, but I link to articles and videos I find provocative and significant, not necessarily ones I entirely agree with.)In Jewish Currents (subscribe!), Mari Cohen reflects on the legacy of former ADL head Abe Foxman.In Current Affairs, Andrew Ancheta examines the similarities between defenses of apartheid South Africa and today’s defenses of Israel.In Equator, Eva Menasse discusses Germany’s warped debate about antisemitism.Reader CommentIn response to my recent video criticizing Tucker Carlson, Mujahid Sarsur, author of the forthcoming book, Palestinians at the Holocaust Museum, writes:I believe the efforts of pro-Palestinian human rights liberal Jews (including you, Michelle Goldberg, and Naomi Klein) to contribute to the Democratic/Republican establishment goal of dismissing Carlson as a bigot are extremely harmful to the Palestinian cause, and I believe such efforts, although primarily justified by focusing on Carlson’s statements that may be perceived as bigoted, partly stem from a need to defend a construct of a “Jewish peoplehood”—a construct which has been substantially shaped not by traditional Jewish ethics, but by the Zionist movement’s ethnocentric influence on the Jewish community.My deeper point is illuminated by coining the term “anti-Zionist Zionist Jews”: a person who does not believe in the need for a Jewish state but still embraces the ideological structures underlying Zionism, wanting to defend and be part of a “Jewish peoplehood,” and unwilling to look at the link between that construct and the extermination of Palestinians.The Palestine issue cannot be understood without a deep exploration of Jewish identity; few questions are more relevant to the Palestinians than “Who is a Jew?” In my upcoming book, I rely on the writings of Jewish and Israeli authors who illustrate how Zionism is ideologically dependent on the construct of “Jewish peoplehood” and who argue that Jews are no more than a faith group, to show how this construct is existentially linked to the future of Palestinians:The concept of the Jewish people has been at the center of Zionist ideology and what it did to the Palestinians. Israeli intellectual Boaz Evron argues that “the problematic situation in which modern Israel finds itself is derived, inter alia, from assumptions and ideologies about the nature of the Jewish people and the Jewish state that have largely been refuted by historical developments.” Israeli historian Shlomo Sand writes that Israel’s attachment to an “unbridled ethnocracy that grossly discriminates against certain of its citizens, rests on the active myth of an eternal nation that must ultimately forgather in its ancestral land.” Professor of Jewish history, Yakov Rabkin, writes that what “underlies Zionist ideology” is “the concept of the Jewish people.” Israeli government policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians have always been about how to defend this “Jewish peoplehood” and whatever the definition of that peoplehood encompasses.
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