Eric Herschthal reported for the Jewish Week on a debate at the 92d Street Y last week over the future of Zionism. Peter Beinart, Steve Rosen formerly of AIPAC, Bret Stephens formerly of the Jerusalem Post, and Roger Cohen were on the dais. Herschthal:
Rosen and Stephens basically agreed: Israel does have “warts” – Lieberman, loyalty oaths, certainly the occupation. But it is still a functioning democracy in a region whose enemies are far uglier, far more menacing than its warts. “You’re focus is on the wrong place,” Rosen told Beinart.
Beinart was happy to concede that Israel’s neighbors were serious threats. The rabbi he that was supposed to preside over his wedding, he said, was killed by a Hamas rocket. But you do nothing to weaken them by giving them reason to stoke anti-Israel sentiment. Israel’s self-destructive policies, he said, are not trivial: “You cannot just dismiss them as warts.”
