Peter Beinart, Israel, Exceptionalism, Human Rights

Last night Peter Beinart spoke at Kolot Chayeinu about his new book, The Crisis of Zionism. 

The book begins in June 2010, when Beinart published an article in the New York Review of Books titled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” in which he took that establishment to task for having for decades asked “American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door,” and said that “now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.”  This was not a surprise to many at Kolot, but the establishment of which he spoke reacted strongly, often repentantly.    

In December of 2010 I had the honor of speaking publicly with Peter in a session at the conference of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and among other things welcomed his critique as one coming from someone who looked more like insider than outsider.   

Here are my remarks from that session.