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Widely-imitated, Beinart is giving Jews permission to be, unh, liberal Zionists

I keep underestimating the Beinart effect. Three recent developments show Beinart’s power. 1, Huffpo ripping off Beinart’s Open Zion blog at the Daily Beast, 2, Stephen Robert’s “God help an infant born in Palestine” op-ed in the IHT yesterday, and 3, Paul Krugman’s support for Beinart in the Times.

The liberal Zionists are having their moment. And maybe they will help Obama.

1. Huffington Post is now imitating “Open Zion,” the Beinart blog at Daily Beast, with a series of posts by liberal Zionists in the days leading up to Nakba commemoration day– sorry, I mean Israel Independence Day. The editor is Leonard Fein of the Forward. He knows something is wrong, but he is bound and determined to save the brand:

In the essays that will that will be published over the next few days, liberal Zionists from both Israel and the United States explain their commitment. Almost all explicitly express their disappointment with Israel’s current direction, yet make clear that that direction, in which exclusion and expansion are central themes, is not at all what Zionism implies….

the problem is how to grab hold of history and turn it in a direction that offers both peoples life, security, hope — an end to the debilitating animosity, an end to the bloodshed, a new day.
That day will not dawn with the Israelis saying, “Oops, we made a mistake, give us a week to pack and we will leave quietly.” Nor will the Palestinians say, “Well, Bantustans are better than nothing, we’ll settle for that.” No, the new day will dawn if and only if a viable Palestinian state is created next door to the Israeli state — that is, only if the hoary principle of partitioning the land is, at last, implemented.

I would describe Fein’s choice there as a false one. Many people with power have actually brought about Bantustans for the Palestinians. No one with any power is suggesting that Jews get out of Dodge; and as for my friends, they’ve merely suggested that Israelis and Palestinians adopt the system that has worked so well for Leonard Fein and me, liberal democracy. 

Still, it’s interesting that Huffpo has thrown itself behind this project. It shows how central Jews are to Democratic blue-state life.

2. The Stephen Robert piece in the IHT, “A Reset in Jewish Thinking,” borrows a lot from Beinart: for a start, the Hail Mary pass for the two-state solution. And also the idea that Jews are powerful in a way we’ve never been before. I liked this language:

How can a people persecuted for so long act so brutally when finally attaining power? Will we continuously see the world as 1938, or can we use the strength of our new power to forgive, while never forgetting the lessons of our past?…

It is time for Jews to realize their changed position…

And here is Robert saying that Jews are doing to Palestinians what anti-Semites did to us.

A state that persecutes, deprives and denies its neighbors in a manner so similar to what our tormentors did to us cannot be acceptable.

It is disappointing to me that the IHT or Robert himself did not allow Robert to say what he said in the Nation a few months ago: It’s “apartheid on steroids” in the West Bank. That would have changed the discourse, to get that argument from a Zionist on the NYT site. But he did get a great line in, emphasis mine:

Virtually imprisoned, the Palestinians lack freedom of movement and civil or political rights. They are subject to imprisonment without charges. They often lack water and jobs and are citizens of nowhere. God help an infant born in Palestine today…. 

3. Krugman’s confession. Last night I did a churlish post about Krugman’s endorsement of Beinart. But as MJ Rosenberg and Ilene Cohen and many commenters have pointed out,  Krugman’s confession that he has avoided the issue because of the threat of being accused of hurting Israel demonstrates the power of the lobby.

I have other battles to fight, and to say anything to that effect [Israel is committing national suicide] is to bring yourself under intense attack from organized groups that try to make any criticism of Israeli policies tantamount to anti-Semitism.

This is valuable. It proves what Walt and Mearsheimer said, it’s career suicide to attack the lobby. Krugman should know.

Beinart’s book is allowing Jews to come out in a way they refused to do when Walt and Mearsheimer said it, because Walt and Mearsheimer made the mistake of being goyim. I’m reading Beinart’s book now and see that he has revisited the same terrain carved out by the 2007 book The Israel Lobby, but simply swapped out the phrase American Jewish Establishment for Israel lobby. It’s a bit of sleight-of-hand, in which he gives no credit to trailblazers Walt and Mearsheimer, but it’s working. I don’t think Beinart’s effort will have any effect on Israel and Palestine, but it will help to reform American Jewish identity.

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This sounds about right. Beinart should not be attacked or denigrated for unwarranted reasons – but neither should he be treated in a way his deed does not warrant.

Walt/Mearsheimers were the real trailblazers – and as you said, coming from the non-Jewish perspective too, which is double impressive. That takes genuine courage.

Beinart’s role is to rehash the argument, make them less vague than W/M were forced to do(that’s why they kept talking about ‘Christian Zionists’ to desperately avoid the attacking force of the lobby/Jewish establishment, but failed), and, via his impeccable Jewish credentials, basically tell Jews “it’s okay”.

But in the end, he’s the back-up guy. The amplifier. But he didn’t take the leap when it was dangerous – nor did he back them up when they came under fire. Nor has he given them any credit. He has only casually referred to them once in a reply to Bret Stephens as ‘figures widely loathed by the Jewish establishment’ and that was it.

Beinart poses like a trailblazer, but as I previously stated, he has gotten all this free media, there’s a huge commotion. Everyone is acting like he is incredibly brave, but all one has to do in his position is to have a thick neck. He is having more access to the MSM than ever before, while W/M were shut off, smeared and were denied any chance to respond to outright calls of anti-Semitism. Their careers languished and they were booted out, kicked off from events. Beinart goes to liberal think tanks and is treated like a hero. But he never says whom he can thank for that.

Maybe it isn’t a coincidence that he climbed up the greasy pole so fast? Maybe I’m being unfair to him. But I am still awaiting Max Blumenthal’s book. It will be much more honest and less riddled with false narratives á la ‘It’s All Bibi’s Fault And The Alternative Is So Much Better’, while every reader of this site knows deep down that such a line of reasoning can be described as a joke at best.

But I bet you that Blumenthal won’t get an entire section of his own at Newsweek or free Op-Ed’s, pick his favourite liberal think tank for long discussions, or having a media blitz to everyone from Charlie Rose to Wolf Blitzer. Because Blumenthal’s message may be naked but it is true. But don’t expect Beinart to give anything than a backhanded and lukewarm compliment at best, if not outright ignoring him – like Beinart ignored W/M when it was tough. Because Beinart is a self-described Centrist and that means he is always behind the real trailblazers and then rehashing their work and taking credit for it. Don’t be surprised to see a sequel on Crisis to Zionism based on Blumenthal’s book in a few years from now, and don’t be surprised if the MSM hails him yet again as a daring truthteller, while ignoring Blumenthal just like they are ignoring W/M now.

Well, the LZs have come out of the wood-work. Good. Perhaps.

But, one question: Shall it be supposed that they are actually different from the RW-Zs and AIPAC in programmatic ways and not merely in motivations and style and claimed humane concerns?

Will they call for removal of the wall and the settlers from all the OTs — not for peace but to comply with I/L, to comply with the Fourth Geneva convention and the ICJ’s July 2004 ruling on the wall?

Or will they seek to allow Israel to continue to possess the fruits of violation of I/L (settlements, East Jerusalem, the water — never forget the water!, etc.)? Will they merely speak of removing the settlements east of the wall, thereby showing that they accept the wall as the proper border? Will they seek to protect Israel’s usurpation of East Jerusalem?

I’m not interested in goody-goodies saying how much they prize democracy and rule of law and then saying that Israel should be allowed to keep what it has stolen.

The Jewish agency said they accepted UNGA-181 (55%) knowing that the Arab states and Palestinians would reject it and that there’d be war. That got them to 78%. If now they also want the wall and what’s west of it, there’s no essential difference between the right-wing and the liberals.

Think about it. Yes, LZs, it’s nice to hear from you again, and thank Beinart for breaking the ice, but please don’t make it all a “distinction without a difference.”

RE: “…liberal Zionists from both Israel and the United States explain their commitment. Almost all explicitly express their disappointment with Israel’s current direction, yet make clear that that direction, in which exclusion and expansion are central themes, is not at all what Zionism implies…” ~ Leonard Fein

SPEAKING OF THE “IMPLICATIONS” OF ZIONISM, SEE: “The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict”, Published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East:

(excerpts). . . “In 1938 a thirty-one nation conference was held in Evian, France, on resettlement of the victims of Nazism. The World Zionist Organization refused to participate, fearing that resettlement of Jews in other states would reduce the number available for Palestine.” ~ John Quigley, ‘Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice’
“It was summed up in the meeting [of the Jewish Agency’s Executive on June 26, 1938] that the Zionist thing to do ‘is belittle the [Evian] Conference as far as possible and to cause it to decide nothing… ~ Israeli author Boas Evron, ‘Jewish State or Israeli Nation?’
“[Ben-Gurion stated] ‘If I knew that it was possible to save all the children of Germany by transporting them to England, but only half of them by transporting them to Palestine, I would choose the second — because we face not only the reckoning of those children, but the historical reckoning of the Jewish people.’ In the wake of the Kristallnacht pogroms, Ben-Gurion commented that ‘the human conscience’ might bring various countries to open their doors to Jewish refugees from Germany. He saw this as a threat and warned: ‘Zionism is in danger.’” ~ Israeli historian, Tom Segev, ‘The Seventh Million’ . . .

• CONTINUED AT – http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/we-have-cancelled-your-booking-the-criminalization-of-travel-to-the-west-bank-is-laid-bare-to-the-world.html#comment-442533

• ALSO SEE THESE EXCERPTS FROM ‘The Hidden History of Zionism’http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/we-have-cancelled-your-booking-the-criminalization-of-travel-to-the-west-bank-is-laid-bare-to-the-world.html#comment-442615

RE: “I don’t think Beinart’s effort will have any effect on Israel and Palestine, but it will help to reform American Jewish identity.” ~ Weiss

AN ENCORE PERFORMANCE OF AN EARLY SPRING AFTERNOON’S MUSICAL INTERLUDE, brought to you once again as a courtesy of the makers of new Ziocaine Über-Xtreme®: It’s guaran-damn-teed to blow your effing mind!™

“The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.
~
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in. . .”

~ from “Anthem” on ‘The Future’ album by Leonard Cohen

Anthem, Leonard Cohen (VIDEO, 09:33) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e39UmEnqY8

I don’t think Beinart’s effort will have any effect on Israel and Palestine, but it will help to reform American Jewish identity. Indeed.

And nothing more. All those pixels set to black, and no changes in the topic. Just another government, and it’s closed. No de-oxymoronisation of “liberal Zionism” (Israel!), of “democratic and Jewish state” (Israel!).