Peter Beinart

Screenshots of a Jewish Voice for Peace panel on antisemitism, featuring commentator Peter Beinart, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, historian Barbara Ransby, and scholar Marc Lamont Hill.

Panel on racism seeks to dispel notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism

A discussion hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace attempts to link the fight against antisemitism with the greater struggle against all forms of oppression.

By Mairav Zonszein December 18, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship at J Street's 2019 National Gala Dinner, October 28, 2019. (Photo courtesy of J Street)

J Street conference confronts America’s ‘blank check’ to Israel

By making U.S. aid to Israel the main theme of its 2019 conference, J Street is challenging bipartisan support for Israel ahead of 2020.

By Mairav Zonszein November 1, 2019

Palestinian men try to pass through the Qalandiya checkpoint on the last Friday of Ramadan, September 3, 2010. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Fortress Israel and the quiet dignity of Palestinian resistance

Peter Beinart’s interrogation at Ben Gurion Airport made headlines not because of his clout as a public intellectual, but thanks to the quiet dignity of Palestinian children, women and men who have endured Fortress Israel for years. I first lost my father in the heat of a Jericho summer, 20 years ago this week. He disappeared, or so it…

By Samer Badawi August 21, 2018

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Israeli police arrests a Palestinian protester at a demonstration for the release of hunger striker Mohammad Allan, outside of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Want to combat Israeli authoritarianism? Listen to Palestinians

Jewish and international observers are constantly having to catch up to what Palestinians have always known about Israel. This needs to change. In his 1963 book The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin wrote a profound personal letter to his young nephew (also named James), in which he poignantly described the dehumanizing world that Black people…

By Amjad Iraqi August 16, 2018

A giant portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a protest against the Jewish Nation-State Law, Tel Aviv, July 30, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Welcome to Netanyahu’s fortress state

The detention and interrogation of high-profile figures such as Peter Beinart and Reza Aslan at Israeli entry points is forcing liberal American Jews to reckon with what Israel is becoming. Over the last month, the Israeli and international media reported several incidents involving Shin Bet agents at ports of entry to Israel detaining prominent Jewish Americans for lengthy, aggressive…

By Lisa Goldman August 14, 2018

Jewish activists take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Brookline, MA, December 16, 2014. (Tess Scheflan/Activestills.org)

An important lesson on privilege, courtesy of Peter Beinart

In a recent article comparing Jewish anti-occupation activists IfNotNow with Black Lives Matter, the prominent Jewish American columnist creates divisions precisely where alliances are needed. By Tom Pessah The word privilege gets thrown around a lot in activist circles. People tend to interpret its use as an accusation, which it sometimes is. But reflection about…

By +972 Magazine April 7, 2017

Participants in the Open Hillel Conference, Harvard University. (photo: Gili Getz)

Israel passes ‘dissenter ban’ barring entry to boycott advocates

It’s impossible to predict how and against whom the new law will be applied, but the message it sends is clear: if your politics don’t toe the Israeli government line, you won’t be allowed in. Even if your opposition is entirely non-violent. As Donald Trump signed a revised travel ban against nationals of six Muslim countries…

By Mairav Zonszein March 7, 2017

An Israeli soldier attempts to stop activists with the Center for Jewish Non-Violence in the West Bank city of Hebron, July 15, 2016. (Dahlia Scheindlin)

Jewish, Palestinian activists try to build a cinema in Hebron

As soldiers and settlers look on, dozens of foreign Jews join Palestinians in the segregated city of Hebron try ‘to make the unbearable a little more bearable.’ Police detain six Israelis among the group, prevent others from even joining. The streets in the Israel-controlled section of Hebron were sunny and silent at 9 a.m. on Friday. The Palestinian shops…

By Dahlia Scheindlin July 15, 2016

Activists hold a sign reading 'Segregation is not our Judaism,in Hebron , October 25, 2013. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Diaspora Jews, it’s time to step up

For years there have been calls for on-the-ground opposition to the occupation. Now there are a growing number of Jewish platforms — and voices — seeking to make it happen. By A. Daniel Roth The way the world is talking about the Israeli occupation is changing. Alongside that change, opportunity is knocking for those of…

By +972 Magazine March 28, 2015

"Pro-Israel" rally, during Gaza offensive, New York Nov 20, 2012 (asterix611/CC BY NC ND 2.0)

Despite dissatisfaction, U.S. Jews won’t be abandoning Israel that soon

It is true that many in the U.S. Jewish community are not happy with current Israeli policies. But in the face of countervailing trends, it is not clear this will change the community’s overall levels of attachment and support. By Brent E. Sasley In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, Bradley Burston argues that U.S. Jews are moving away…

By +972 Magazine January 4, 2013

Soon to be outlawed? A BDS rally in Melbourne (Photo: Takver)

Why did progressive U.S. Jewish groups oppose divestment?

Despite having an explicit anti-settlement position, J Street and Americans for Peace Now actively opposed the Presbyterian Church’s efforts to divest from companies that profit from the occupation. By doing so, they are standing in the way of the Palestinian stride for freedom. By Naftali Kaminski and Michael Zigmond Undoubtedly, when Peter Beinart wrote his…

By +972 Magazine July 14, 2012

Jerusalem Post op-ed calls New Yorker editor ‘anti-Israel’

By publishing an op-ed whose sole purpose is to demonize the editor of The New Yorker, the Jerusalem Post is positioning itself in direct odds with liberal values – not to mention journalistic integrity. The Jerusalem Post ran an op-ed yesterday (Monday) by a writer and attorney from Washington, D.C. explaining why he is canceling…

By Mairav Zonszein May 1, 2012

An essential sense of urgency: On Peter Beinart’s ‘The Crisis of Zionism’

“The Crisis of Zionism,” appears to be a book about politics, history and ideology, but in fact it is a research into identity; the identity of a community and the identity of the author. It is a book about the construction, the de-construction and the effort to reconstruct an identity; it sheds light on forgotten…

By Noam Sheizaf April 19, 2012