SocraticGadfly: Liberal Zionism and the "two state solution": Peter Beinart defects and explains why

July 17, 2020

Liberal Zionism and the "two state solution":
Peter Beinart defects and explains why

Liberal Zionism has long held a stranglehold on Democratic Party foreign policy thinking about Israel and Palestine.

And now, the man who was long one of its best defenders and most articulate spokesmen, Peter Beinart, has defected.

As Mondoweiss noted, Beinart had hugely legit bona fides, including being a wingman to Marty Peretz when he ran the editorial ship at The New Republic.

Mondoweiss discusses the importance of Beinart jumping ship, with more here. And here is Beinart's Jewish Currents piece itself, where he lays out why he is jumping ship in general and on the two-state solution in particular. Jacobin offers up an interview of Beinart.

Basically, Beinart says the two-state idea is dead, and that current Israeli government actions are making it even more dead.

That leaves just one real alternative: A single state of Israel-Palestine, with full and equal rights, religious and otherwise, for all.

Beinart says his break was as much drift as break, with roots going back 20 years. He also says liberal Zionism in the US has gotten stale.

Beinart, per what I said up top, has other interesting observations. In the 1950s, he says Israel could have used newly arriving Mizrahi Jews as a bridge to Palestinians, but instead, Mizrahis felt compelled to abandon their own Arabness.

I am also "shocked" that a Josh Marshall has failed to even acknowledge this. I don't know if this will be a semi-coordinated strategy by many liberal Zionists, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were the case.

Given the anti-BDS cancel culture mentality of many signers of that infamous Harper's letter, and now Bari Weiss' boo-hoo resignation from the New York Times op-ed staff, Josh will probably stay silent, too.

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