If he doesn't have Jeffrey Goldberg, he has no one
One would think that Jeffrey Goldberg - a liberal Zionist if there is such a thing in the World today - would be someone who is open to being persuaded by Peter Beinart that there's a crisis in Zionism. But Beinart doesn't have Goldberg. In a brief post in his Atlantic blog on Tuesday, Goldberg destroys Beinart. Peter Beinart has been arguing for several years, in columns and speeches and in his recent book, that Israel and the "American Jewish establishment" are willfully ignoring Hamas' turn to moderation in large part because they seek to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian unity government, which might force them to make (and endorse, in the Americans' case) concessions for peace they don't want to make.So who is supporting Peter Beinart? Clearly not Orthodox Jews regardless of how pro-Israel they are. I doubt there are statistics on this, but my guess is that the Peter Beinart groupies are the intermarried, the people who hold Buddhist seders, the people who haven't set foot in a synagogue in two generations... in a word, the JINO's (Jews in Name Only).
Here is something Peter wrote on the subject last year: "(A) shift in U.S. and Israeli policy towards Hamas is long overdue. The organization has been basically observing a de-facto cease-fire for two years now, and in the last year its two top leaders, Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniya, have both said Hamas would accept a two-state deal if the Palestinian people endorse it in a referendum."
Peter's willingness to extend the benefit of the doubt to Hamas, I think, is a sign of naivete. Hamas might one day change. It will cease to be Hamas when it does, but it may keep the name and change the theology. But right now it is an anti-Semitic extremist organization that has the blood of hundreds of Jewish children on its hands, and an organization, by the way, that is also the sworn enemy of precisely the sort of moderate Palestinian leaders who are apt to make an actual peace deal. No one should be surprised by the recent Forward interview with Moussa Abu Marzook, the Hamas number-two leader. As for Peter, I just wish he would fight Muslim fundamentalism with the same ferocity he brings to the fight against Jewish fundamentalism.
I don't know if you caught the discussion of Beinart after Netanyahu's interview on CNN in the previous post, but I thought it was quite telling. The Peter Beinart's of the world are bothered by the fact that the largest Jewish community in the world is no longer the American Jewish community. It's Israel's. And Israel's Jewish community is far more religiously committed - in terms of absolute numbers, percentages and an immeasurable depth - than any other Jewish community in the world today.
And to tie that in with today and tomorrow - in my mind, that's the biggest accomplishment the State of Israel has to its credit, even if it hasn't always been happy with the consequences.
Labels: American Jews, Jeffrey Goldberg, Peter Beinart, Zionism
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:59 AM
4 Comments:
Just amazing, Carl, to see even you taking up for the Israeli govt rabbis and throwing a mudball at the Ruth wing of the Jewish enterprise. And not a word in this post from reps of these various wings regarding the Israeli citizens sitting under rocket fire from Gaza - the exact area Israel already evicted Jews from in order to try what the spoiled U.S., Euro, and Russian Leftists have wanted done (and still obviously are pushing). Dude. Clarity of message would help Israel. But maybe the "real" goal is to WIN against the U.S. Jewish Left, without having to come up with any teachable non-marxist Judaism, because the Torah does not describe things the way the wings are playing them. OK then. (But I think you guys could do it if you refocus away from this p*#&ing contest. Ignore them and lead through distance learning.)
Once again, Sunlight brings us darkness.
"Rabbis"! "Rabbis"! Wah! Wah! Wah!
Darkness? Obviously, those rabbis have no influence over your life, Shy Guy. But they do over many out in the diaspora. Not that they are rabbis, but that they are government employees with gatekeeper power. And, as I've been informed by a Sephardic rabbi, they are throwing mudballs at us out here, rather than engaging somehow, for their own domestic political purposes. Darkness will be just giving up on the whole thing, which looks like your preference.
No, you comments leave us in darkness. So now it's the government employed rabbis? Spit it out. What are you talking about? Bone. Pick. Which?
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