Video Archives - Peter Beinart Presents 'The Crisis of Zionism' (2012)

12-11-2014

Thursday, April 26^th, 2012: A book presentation on The Crisis of Zionism

Participants: Peter Beinart, an American journalist who writes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as on issues of Jewish identity more generally. He is the author of The Crisis of Zionism.

Peter Beinart spoke at Bard in April 2012. His talk, “The Crisis of Zionism,” was a kind of brief manifesto of his take on what liberal Zionism, his politics of choice, should mean. As a liberal Zionist, Beinart believes in the fundamental compatibility of Jewishness and democracy—the two founding principles of the State of Israel. Regarding the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he personally believes that the creation of a separate Palestinian state and Israel’s embrace of Zionist discourse that facilitates greater dialogue and cooperation can help create a way forward. Not surprisingly, this position has invited criticism from multiple directions.

[caption id="attachment_14976" align="alignleft" width="300"] Peter Beinhart (Source: Washington Note)[/caption]

Beinart believes that there are three substantial goods that the creation of Israel has brought to Jews today: first, the protection of a state dedicated to preventing the persecution of Jews anywhere in the world; second, the revival of the Hebrew language; and third, the promise in Israel’s Declaration of Independence of social and political equality to all citizens regardless of race or gender. These three things contribute, in Beinart’s view, to the current situation of Jewish privilege and empowerment in both America and in Israel. Jews today are not refugees or exiles, as they were in the past. They are prominent citizens of a number of states, especially the U.S. and Israel.

Paradoxically, it is precisely this new Jewish power that, in Beinart’s view, poses serious problems to Jews today. “I think the fundamental problem is that American Jews… have not found a way to talk about Jewish power” in today’s world, forfeiting their agency while clinging to the old narratives of Jewish victimhood. Indeed, for the institutional Jewish establishment, it is as if the condition of Jews in the world has not changed since the 1930s.

Jewish tradition, as Beinart points out, is much more than a story of victimization. There are also many instances in which Jews receive and exercise power. The story of Purim, for example, ends not simply with the Jews’ escaping from Persian persecution but in fact with the empire granting Jews the right to retaliate against the tribe of their persecutor.

[caption id="attachment_14978" align="alignright" width="303"] Peter Beinart's The Crisis of Zionism (Source: The Wall Street Journal)[/caption]

Ultimately, it is stories such as these that have Beinart so confused about the ways in which Israel approaches the world. “What good is the Jewish tradition,” Beinart wonders, if it cannot inform the situation of Jewish power we find today? For a liberal Zionist, any approach to Zionism must begin from the understanding that Jews today are a powerful, privileged people and are not the vulnerable masses of yore.

Acknowledging this, Beinart proposes that the way forward for Israel must involve fostering a conversation with Palestinians and recognizing their place near the center of Jewish reality. He therefore suggests that all Birthright trips include visits to the West Bank and Gaza, not to mention conversations with Palestinians. He also suggests that all synagogues, community centers, and Jewish publications invite Palestinian and Arab speakers and writers to contribute their viewpoints.

Beinart is a relatively rare character for trying to maintain commitments to the ideas of Zionism on the one hand and justice for a Palestinian people on the other. Even so, he is, as he describes it, a “non-utopian liberal” who allows his sense of realism and pragmatism to permeate his talk. He does not speak in terms of solutions, as others commonly do. He recommends productive measures that could alleviate the tension between Jews and Arabs, a hostility which he recognizes might simply linger indeterminately for the foreseeable future.

Analysis by Dan Perlman

(Featured Image: The Israeli flag; Source: The Birthright Dream)

You can view the entirety of Peter Beinart's talk below:

Peter Beinart "The Crisis of Zionism" from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.