Author: Jonathan Cook
Affiliation: Independent Journalist
Organization/Publisher: Middle East Eye
Date/Place: July 17, 2020/U.K.
Type of Literature: Article
Number of words: 2799
Link:https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-peter-beinart-jewish-state-renounced-liberal-zionists
Keywords: Israel, two states solution, one state solution, Palestine, Peter Beinart
Brief:
This article reflects on Peter Beinart, an influential liberal commentator on Israel as well as Zionism, who broke ranks with his two newly published essays in the New York Times. Beinart states that “The painful truth is that the project to which liberal Zionists like myself have devoted ourselves for decades – a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews – has failed… It is time for liberal Zionists to abandon the goal of Jewish-Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish-Palestinian equality.” Jonathan Cook demonstrates that Beinart is not the first prominent Jewish American to turn his back on the idea of a Jewish state. For instance, the historian Tony Judt did the same in 2003. Cook claims that the annexation plan has forced Beinart to contradict that trauma. Also, the author comments that the Zionist right and mainstream have labelled Beinart as a traitor, “a self-hating Jew” and “a collaborator with Palestinian terrorism.” Further, many eminent figures attacked Beinart for his new position. For instance, David Weinberg called Beinart “a shill for Israel’s enemies” who “secretes poison.” The author concludes that the Israeli Jews will change, as the case with White South Africans. However, that will happen when they suffer a harsher international environment.
By: Fadi Zatari, CIGA Senior Research Associate
