Betrayal Glorified: The Bizarre Jewish Movement to Destroy Israel by Pretending to Save It
Also read my article Being an Israeli and a Jew in 2012: Let’s Face Reality Without Illusion, Shrug, and Move Forward
I can only laugh at the idea of dilettante Peter Beinart and J Street as leader of the anti-Israel (oops, I meant save-Israel-from-itself) movement. After all, imagine people parading as self-defined heroes while peddling ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with reality. But behind the stupid ideas is a very poisonous hidden agenda.
We live in an age of intellectual absurdity in which a book by someone who has no notion of Israeli reality and who is, at best, decades (I’d say three) out of date is treated as if he could possibly be of some relevance. Or an organization that has literally never made a single pro-Israel initiative claims to be the country’s best friend.
Contrary to the title of Beinart’s book, there is no crisis of Zionism, certainly not in the way he and similarly thinking American Jews believe. The crisis is simply that Israel has become an actually existing country that is defined by an Israel-Jewish patriotism based on historical Zionism. In fact, regarding Israel itself, Zionism has been so successful that it simply isn’t needed in the same way as it was in 1947.
Regarding American Jews, the problem is that of the left-wing — almost always people who consciously know they are on the other side and their tool of choice on Israel is a sledgehammer — not Zionism. This “new” approach is based on the debate of the 1970s and 1980s, more specifically the 1974-1992 era.
At that time, there were three points of contention that Beinart and others try to revive in a totally different world:
- Continuation of the occupation endangered Israel’s soul and society through hubris, brutalization, fanatical religiosity, and ambitious nationalism.
- If Israel didn’t make peace and get rid of the territories as fast as possible it would be destroyed by…well, it isn’t exactly clear by whom, since its enemies had failed so continually and were weaker than they’d been in the past. But this meant that Israel had to rush to make peace at any price.
- There was a wonderful opportunity to achieve a stable, just, and lasting peace. Merely offer the Palestinians and Arabs a reasonable settlement—particularly a Palestinian state—and a peace agreement would quickly follow.
This way of thinking has long since been discredited by the experiences of the failed peace process and radicalized regional politics. First, Israel withdrew from large portions of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, putting virtually all Palestinians under self-rule. Later, it pulled out of the Gaza Strip completely. There was no more “occupation” as there had been in the 1967-1993 period. Yet despite these huge changes there was no real progress toward peace
Second, we discovered that the Palestinians and Syria weren’t eager for peace. During the peace process era, the hardline propaganda, hate, and intransigence continued virtually uninterrupted on the other side. It became clear that Israel was not threatened by a refusal to take big risks and make concessions, rather the threat came from making deadly arrangements out of good intentions or even a dangerously bad “peace” deal that would leave the country worse off.
Third, most Israelis concluded that they didn’t want most of the territory captured in 1967. There was an Israeli consensus to keep much of east Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and some small areas of the West Bank along the border. But in exchange for real peace, they were ready to give up a lot, something like 100 percent of the Gaza Strip and 95 plus percent of the West Bank.
The same new thinking applied to accepting a two-state solution. Let the Palestinians have their state, even let Fatah or the PLO rule it if they only left us alone and ended the conflict. But that wasn’t going to happen. There was no intransigence or “Greater Israel” ambition to poison Israel. The experience and these changes left Israel with a clear conscience, not the “clear conscience” of those so distant that these issues were a mere abstraction but that of people who knew they sometimes made mistakes and had to take tough decisions to survive.
Fourth, the West generally broke its promises to Israel, showing that it was not dependable. The understanding was for Israel to make big concessions and take big risks knowing that if that failed, the West would acknowledge Israel as the good guys and back it fully. Yet Israelis saw that the more risks Israel took, concessions it gave, and casualties it suffered, the more it was slandered and delegitimized in large parts of the West (including by the very people who pretend to save it from itself). The supposed winning formula — pull back, turn over, concede and you will be secure and happy–didn’t work. The Obama administration fully proved this reality.
Fifth, the 2000-2005 terrorist-based intifada and the radical response to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza reinforced these lessons, as did the growing Islamism that openly advocated war, terrorism, and genocide against Israel.
Sixth, the “Arab Spring” was a last straw, with revolutionary Islamists seizing power, Turkey changing sides, Iran building a sphere of influence and going full-speed-ahead on nuclear weapons, as well as a U.S. leadership on which Israel couldn’t depend. If ever there was a time for not making concessions and being starry-eyed over peace, our present day is that time.
The majority of Israelis say: I don’t want the settlements. I want a two-state solution. But unfortunately I know that the leadership and majority of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims want to destroy us, not to get a Palestinian state. They are getting more radical, due to their own thinking and social issues. We cannot get any reasonable deal and any deal that might happen would be used by them as a more advantageous springboard for continuing the conflict against us.
That is why the Israeli peacenik left collapsed and Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister. It wasn’t that Israel had moved to the right but that reality had done so.
The members of Neturei Karta embrace – literally – the Twelver Shia enemies if Israel. To NK, since the Ingathering of the exiles wasn’t accomplished at the command of an annointed king of the royal house of David, the resulting State is illegitimate and needs must lead to catastrophe. Thus, love for the Jewish people requires that they be enemies of the State. The fact that there is strong halachic authority legitimizing the State – it’s misguided and hence irrelevant. Still, at least NK has clear criteria.
The Left, on the other hand, vilified Herut for opposing a Palestinian state in historic Judea and Samaria; now it vilifies Likud for wanting to limit the Palestinian state to this region. The Left, too, embraces and supports Israel’s enemies. And ultimately the Left’s secular messianism comes to the same conclusion as NK: because the real world State of Israel cannot fulfill their dreams, its existence is evil.
Leftists in every case seem willing to twist any religious belief to achieve their political end of a totally socialist state in every country. This group may be ethnically Jewish but they are merely using religious arguments to achieve a secular end. They have much in common with muslims that use fraud and deceit in the expansion of islam around the world as directed by the koran. Marx, Engels, and Lenin are the only gods in their world view.
Those retards know better what is best for everyone at planetary scale, not just Israel, so don’t take it too hard.
Nothing personal (JINOs can’t genetically identify with Jewish history), just ideology.
In the meantime let’s forget (for the sake of political correctness) what are the Koranic teachings and let’s concentrate on efficient ways to boycott Israel, Israel economy and companies.
Hopefully the (self-righteous fake) outrage will compensate for other anatomic appendages that are obviously missing.
And what a fine specimen Peter Beinart is. He/she/it illustrates my point quite exemplary.
Interesting you never mentioned the word “settler” once in this article once Dr. Rubin. Quite correct: they’re Israeli Jewish citizens settling on Israeli land.
And speaking of witch (pun intended) have you noticed the phoenix-like political resurrection of the ever flamboyant “anti-Zionist” George Galloway?
Maybe a lot of Brits didn’t receive the memo about a tiny minority ™ of preachers influencing a tiny minority ™ of voters. But hey, in the bubble I live there’s rainbows 24/7 even for the chemically-impaired.
The place where Galloway was elected from, Bradford West, is an Islamist-dominated area and he defeated a Labour party candidate who was a Muslim. There will be a deluge from the press trying to spin this victory; they’ll cite reasons such as Labour party infighting, anti-incumbency factor, Galloway’s famous public profile and so on. I am waiting to see if any one will point out the obvious: He was re-elected was because he skillfully exploited the anti-British and anti-semitic feelings prevalent in Bradford..
And what’s next?
A tiny minority ™ voting for Ken Livingstone as mayor of London -(istan)?
P.S.
For those who don’t know London is the next “beacon of Islam” with delusions of hosting the next Olympics.
London is the next BACON of Islam.
It never ceases to amaze me that US based “liberal” progressive jews are so willing to tell Israeli jews what to do.
If Beinart et. al., had to dodge a few missiles each week or worry about having his children’s school targeted by machine gun toting “peaceniks” from the PLO or Hamas maybe he would have different view of reality.
But of course, he need not worry about any of this stuff; he will not lose his house, his money, his job , his wife, his children, his parents, his brothers and sisters, etc etc, if, by following his suggestions, Israel gets wiped off the face of the earth and its entire population is exterminated.
He, and his ilk, frankly could care less. Like many “liberal progressives” what matters to him is that he is well received and applauded when he attends academic events or upper west side cocktail parties or is invited to some morning TV show and have the opportunity to show the world how moral and rigtheous he is.
I have a good idea for Beinart; MOVE TO ISRAEL AND LIVE AMONGST THE PLO AND HAMAS AND AGITATE THERE FOR PEACE. MAKE SURE YOU BRING YOUR CHILDREN AND WIFE SO YOU CAN SEE -UP CLOSE AND PERSONNAL – HOW YOUR CHILDREN REACT WHEN A PEACE LOVING PLO/HAMAS MURDERER CUTS OFF THE HEAD OF YOUR WIFE WHILE YOUR CHILDREN WATCH, KNOWING THAT THEY ARE NEXT.
When you PERSONALLY have something to lose it forces people to deal with reality.
Peter Beinhart is gone from this earth. Thank you Dear G-d. He was a traitorous person to Judiasm. And so are the J Street Jews. They should have bombs and missiles thrown at them continuously. We would then see how they would cower in bomb shelters. Shimon Peres, the Benedict Arnold of Israel, made a peace agreement secretly with murderer and terrorist Yasser Arafat. Both received the Nobel Peace Price. They should have received the “death” prize as many Israelis have been killed since this Agreement. Palestinians are Jordanian citizens and should be moved to Jordan. Gazans are Egyptian citizens and should be moved to Egypt. Israel will then have more secure borders.And maybe Mr. Peres can join Peter Beinhart.
It’s Ozarks, not Ozark.
“For we have not merely projected our paranoiac thinking that just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but we’ve been so overwhelmed with irrational fear . . . ”
Classic. And unfortunately, Marc Tracy wrote an article in Tablet Magazine making exactly that point – that paranoia and political cynicism cause Jews to see everyone as Amalek, as illustrated (in his view) by Bibi presenting President Obama with a copy of the Book of Esther as a not too subtle parallel about the dangers of Iran. And the sad thing is that Tracy and others he quoted in his article actually believe their own fantasies.
Funny that you mention the Seder. Jeremy Ben Ami said of his staff at J Street
“‘They’re all intermarried,’ ‘They’re all doing Buddhist seders.’”
While I have long since abandoned Jon Stewart and The Daily Show’s particular brand of self hate, Jew hate and agitprop against Israel, I had held out hope for Stephen Colbert. Unfortunately he had Beinart on his show last night. So we’re done.
Prof Rubin: EXCELLENT piece which clarifies positions, along with some other articles I have read lately. You write(is GOLD):
If your definition of proper Jewishness is to be like Berkeley and Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Israel is not going to make the grade. On the contrary, Israel seems too much like the South, Midwest, or non-urban areas where people cling to their guns and religion and don’t eagerly turn over large portions of their territory to armed hostile forces that openly proclaim their goal of exterminating them.
I wrote the above paragraph in a style that (hopefully) would be funny but I think it is absolutely true. By being so “primitive,” it embarrasses them, like a Harvard professor whose relatives from the Ozark show up in their pickup truck toting shotguns and going to church.
~~~~
It is absolutely true. Bingo. On the nose. And it comes down IMO, to this: all of the godless will forever line up against anything of God. And some, like the RCC faction, that preaches replacement theology, lead millions astray on their faith walk, and against Israel and, God.
There is a major disconnect between liberals and conservatives. This article and the book the article is based on, answered many Whys? about the left: http://tinyurl.com/7rhqy5n
Folks want to put God on the back burner, and not address the ‘social wedge issues’…”We don’t talk about religion and politics” is getting increased mileage these days…well both are integral parts of life!!! It doesn’t matter if these issues don’t interest someone, and they choose to be a spectator participant through sport, reality TV, or they work hard and just don’t have the time or energy to get informed, IT STILL AFFECTS THEM, they’re just too numbed to realize it.
We are in a ‘religious’ war: Judeo-Christian worldview/godless NWO Elites worldview/Islamic worldview… Read 2 Chronicles 29-32. The 10 tribes have been decimated by the Assyrians, and Zephaniah comes to the throne at age 25.
America is at the same crossroads: Years of turning against God, and He has had enough. And man, the elites, be they secular Jews or godless or social justice Christians, thinks, believes, he has the answers.
The issue has nothing to do with God or not-God. This is rethorical non-sense of the same type as practiced by the pseudo-progressivists. I´m an atheist and Jewish and totally pro-Israel and pro-Western. And I´m for freedom of religion and of thought.
I still haven’t bothered to read Beinart… but all of the responses have been illuminating…
I too was wondering to which settlements they are referring… but I didn’t go back quite as far as you… some definite patterns emerge… shabbat shalom and thanks for your constant light of truth in a very deceptive world media…
Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.
http://mg.co.za/article/2012-03-30-european-right-wing-turns-zionist/
The reality is that from the Arab point of view the entire problem is due to Balfour declaration and the establishment of Israel.
The preference is back to the days of the Turkish Caliphate.
Actually, the map of the Mandate after Jordan was severed.
Their preference/goal is “from the river to the sea”, and the same number of Jews as are allowed to live in Jordan: 0.
In terms of settlements, the proof that they are not really a problem for the Palestinian Arabs is that if they were, Abbas would be rushing to negotiate a peace agreement in order to prevent more building.
Peter Beinart also has an Op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal concerning the high rate of intermarriage of American Jews (50% according to Beinart). He blames it on the lack of Jewish Elementary and High Schools, though he does write that they would be expensive –he estimated about $14 K per year tuition.
So, as he points out, its the Jews own fault for not properly educating the young. There is of course some truth to that but can that possibly be a leading or governing cause of intermarriage?
A much more important cause is the adsorption of the Reform movement into the upper hierarchies of the Democratic Party. Yes, the upper secularist hierarchies, necessary for huge campaign contributions, but not the inner circle which is reserved for anti-semites.
All my life I have Supported Israel, and I,m not jewish (70). Israel should remove all islamis people from gaza, maybe Arabs too. Yes the world go crazy, but they have never supported Israel. It’s always the pore palestinians. Let them eat lead for awhile.
Straight out of the Obama book of tactics to CHANGE one of the few remaining “democracies” in the world. Wise to beware people who promise to do good for you when you’re doing just fine on your own.
It’s arrogance: You may think you are sovereign, you may think you are independent. But you can’t really make your own decisions for you. Us grown ups from far away who have no idea about the reality of your situation will decide for you.
That’s what Beinart is saying.
Which just goes to show that the Palestinian are not interested in a state of their own so much as no Jews in the region.
Fourth, the West generally broke its promises to Israel, showing that it was not dependable.
In a previous article “Fact checking Newt Gingrich” in which the writer refers to Newt’s TV interview, he quotes Gingrich complaining how the US has helped sustain the war against the Israelis since the 1940s.
The bottom line is… The allies had no right to give Palestine to the Jews. Their claim of 1000 years ago might as well be the north American Indians wanting Canada and the US back. We didn’t need to “make up” for what Hitler did. And if we did… They should’ve gotten Gernany.
The “allies” gave nothing to anybody.
Barry Rubin has an excellent primer on the subject and includes all of the important historical documents. It is important to understand how the UN mandate of Palestine came about and the efforts to secure a diplomatic solution failed when the British withdrew.
It is a complicated history but one important point is that in 1947 when Israel declared a state, they were under strict arms embargo with no economic or military backing and already engaged in war against the combined Arab armies. They only received recognition after the cease fire. The UN partition plan had been accepted by Israel and rejected by the Arabs who thought they could simply annihilate the Jews and capture the whole thing. They lost.
When someone says something as stupid as ” they should have gotten Germany” I can guess that willful ignorance is at play. “we” did not “make up” for anything. The Jews fought for Independance and survival and the state of Israel is now a fact.
The real bottom line is that all the Arabs need to do is accept Israel as a reality. The Palestinians have been offered a state on more than one occasion and that offer is still open. Israel does not want conflict. It is open to peace and prosperity.
Just a little history: the UN partition vote occurred in 1947, not Israel’s declaration of independence. That occurred in May 1948.
The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of the war and it was partitioned afterwards, forming multiple Arab states (notice that we never hear gripes about their borders) and Israel. They may have somewhat insensitive to ethnic issues (e.g., the Kurds) but all was done with international approval. Israel was initially much larger than it is today – on subsequent negotiations, the Arab states kept calling for Israel to be smaller (what they actually wanted was for it to be gone). Jewish oppression had gone on for hundreds of years and there were good humanitarian reasons to create a Jewish homeland. Many of the same people who favor reparations for slavery are, paradoxically, opposed to a Jewish homeland. Also, keep in mind that much of the land in Israel had been purchased by Jews; they were going to create a homeland whether they got a country or not. So, nothing was “given” to them. And the land was awful – swamp and desert.
As Israel prepared for independence, Arab states told Muslims to leave Israel or die alongside the Jews. They refused to recognize the final Israeli borders, as this would bind them to international accords. The day after (literally) Israel declared independence, six Arab states initiated military action against it.
So, let’s set aside the notion that the Arab states have the moral high ground on this one.
The Israeli side of the story is summarized pretty well here.
http://www.standwithus.com/
Bottom line is: your so-called opinion is worthless. Israel is a reality. Accept it. Swallow it. Get on with your life. Or have an ulcer. It´s your choice.
BTW, as you seem so concerned with historical justice, you could split Germany
with Mexico and Spain to compensate for Texas and Florida that you stole from them. Just a suggestion.
And from whom did Spain steal Florida, Mexico – and most of Latin America?
And what about the native tribes who lived in these areas BEFORE they were wiped out by Indian tribes that arrived subsequent?
And last, but certainly not least, BEFORE THE ARABS, much of that area had been occupied for centuries (thousands of years?) by the BERBERS !! The Berbers were forced off much of “Arabian” lands by the invading Arab hordes.
So, anyone can play this stupid game of yours.
By the way, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon were literally carved out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire – as was Israel.
Also, prior to about 1967 or so a “palestinian” meant a jew.
Even a rudimentary awareness of the history of Israel suggests the Arab states are in the wrong. Their goal is to remove Israel, but the international community has (so far) not allowed this. Instead, the Arab states have settled for making Israel smaller and smaller. If they want to promote justice for the Palestinians (whatever they are), they could help Palestine become a thriving economy – a lot of the Arab nations have the money to do so.
Here’s my negotiation strategy for Israel. Within their borders, they have a right to develop land as they choose. They should proceed to do so. They should tell the Palestinians that whatever land is not developed could be subject to negotiating. But as time passes, there will be less and less land open to negotiation. So, tick tock Palestinians – get to the negotiations table and get serious or watch it slip away.
Barry
This is a fantastic article. Just a couple of points:
1. There are, unfortunately, a very large number of (Jewish) Israelis – I’d say as high as 25-30% – who think the same way as the ill-informed American ‘liberal’ Jews. Worryingly, an even higher proportion of young Israelis think this way because they actually are as ignorant of the simple facts of history you laid out as their US counterparts (the Israeli education system has a LOT to answer for).
2. The ignorance of the facts you laid out are even worse in the UK:
http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/israel-and-jew-hatred-in-uk.html
The crisis is simply that Israel has become an actually existing country that is defined by an Israel-Jewish patriotism based on a historical Zionism.
In the eyes of the left, or of liberals, a country which is based on patriotism, or religion, or ethnicity, is an illegitimate country founded on bigotry. It has to be said that they are consistent on this point. They apply it equally to America and to Israel. I think they are very, very wrong on this point, but they are consistent on it.
This cannot be said of neoconservatives, who believe in universalism (for all countries other than Israel) and particularism (for Israel) at the same time.
I’m happy to see that Barry Rubin does not make the same mistake.
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/05/belgium-half-of-all-muslim-immigrant.html
Beinart and J Street are doing it for the money. Soros money, which began when Soros joined the Nazis in expropriating Jewish property in occupied Hungary
“If your definition of proper Jewishness is to be like Berkeley and Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Israel is not going to make the grade. On the contrary, Israel seems too much like the South, Midwest, or non-urban areas where people cling to their guns and religion and don’t eagerly turn over large portions of their territory to armed hostile forces that openly proclaim their goal of exterminating them … it embarrasses them, like a Harvard professor whose relatives from the Ozark show up in their pickup truck toting shotguns and going to church”.
This sums it up nicely. I expect Beinart would be equally ill at ease at a police bar with some of NYPD’s finest as they discuss what really went on during their shift. Of course Beinart would never think of either doing w/o the protection of NYPD or of joining the “thin blue line” that protects him and his family.
Beinart has jumped on the bandwagon. He says, and he probably thinks, that he is being pro-Israel by calling for a boycott of against settlement products. But he is joining a movement that is simply anti-Israel no matter what the issues. Now there is a new boycott movement against Israeli theater:
http://www.haaretz.com/culture/israeli-theater-must-be-removed-from-london-festival-top-u-k-cultural-figures-say-1.421895
Is there any other country on earth that provokes such a reaction? When I went to hear the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall some months ago, there were anti-Israel demonstrators picketing across the street. Anti-Israel hatred is unique. Beinart doesn’t understand that he is joining the haters against the hated.
Hows strange to see that such weird leftist jews still receive a lot of coverage from your side of the pond; here in France , we have brutal murders of jewish schoolgirls at the hand of a muslim-french jihadist( 2 weeks ago) in Toulouse, we had a jewish cellphone dealer sequestrated and tortured to death by a gang of muslims thugs ( 3 years ago) we had my friend Sebastien Sellam ( a famous disc-jockey ) stabbed 44 times in his private parking by his muslim neighbour , etcc…etc..so there are very little jewish traitors like Mr Beinart, because here in good old europe, in France the country of ” droits de l’homme ” ( human rights ) it is too late.With 8 to 9 millions muslims on a 65 million populaation, the situation is irreversible, lost only for more decline, more brtuality and the ” funny ” thing is that the more the french media keeps on pounding on Israel and the more the arab-muslim-french get more angered after Israel.French media under heavy influence of the state are trying to deflect the growing wrath muslim frenchmen holds towards the state, the police, the institutions, the school system,etc.. against a remote responsible ” Israel ” hence the sudden burst of crimes against the jews.So it’s rather too late to play Chamberlain like Mr beinart tries.We have 8 or 9 millions of small hitler ans that’s the same all over Europe.
Many Jews on the so-called left want the settlement project stopped knowing full well that peace will not automatically follow but at least it will shift the focus and pressure to the real problem – Palestinian intransigence and antipathy to accepting a Jewsish Israeli state.
It will not transfer attention to the Arab behaviour as another excuse will be found to damn the Jews of Israel.
Two days ago I had another grandson born in Yerushalayim. Both mother and child are in excellent health , Thank G-d.
Beinart? Who cares?
To breathe the air as a Jew in a free Yerushalayim, to have millions of souls looking down from heaven as I pray in Yerushalayim saying , ” Yes , yes! We prayed for you to be there, we died with your prayers on our lips for you to be there, pray for us now. ”
Beinart ? Why read Beinart when you can read Rambam ?
Why waste a second of precious life on someone who is so completely irrelevant ?
The problem with Israel that Mr. Rubin does not mention is the system of the government of Israel. If most Israelis indeed agree to give up Judea and Samaria for delusional peace, then Israel deserves what is coning her way, regardless of what the West or J street thinks and say. One doesn’t do that, period.
More and more of us claim that Israelis are unfit to lead the Jewish people and as a result, a variety of schemes have been plotted by the leadership elite, for their personal ambitions, Nobel Peace Prize being one of those.
If the people fail to elect true leaders, who put the fate of the nation before their narcissist ambition and the Government of Israel acts to sever Yehuda and Shomron, and the Heritage Icons, few would be interested on “serving” the country to risk themselves to support such garbage.
Using people is a common trait of those Israeli unJews-Jews In Name Only-JINO’s, etc, but that will stretch that trait too far.
Last week Jews purchased large property in Hebron and all point as it being a legit purchase. The Ehud Barak’s excrement is still trying to harm these Jews. Barak is playing his cards dangerously to himself as Netanyahu may well opt for Mofaz and his 28 mandates rather than Barak and his 6…
When Beinart came out with that piece about young Jews being alienated from Israel, I wrote a left-wing, Jewish, ZIONIST rebuttal to him online and published it. It became something of a small hit.
About a week ago, when this book was coming out, Beinart’s wife emailed me some information about the book. I just replied asking, “Why are you and your husband not living in Israel?”
I never received an answer.
If you read this, Eli, please give us a link to your rebuttal of Beinart.
Why are the Beinart and his wife not living in Israel?
A few guesses – they would have to take pay cuts and live in a smaller house. They would have to get by in a non-Indo-European language that is written “backwards” without vowels. They would have to try to get used to
hearing the “boom” of suicide bombers blowing themselves up in the center of town(as we did in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada). They would not only have a generation gap but a cultural gap with their own children. They would
miss important events in the lives of relatives and friends who stayed in the
States. But all this it minor in light of the fact they might have to say Kaddish for theirchild killed in the army defending his country as, sadly, some of our olim from America have had to do.
Beinart and the NK should have their bris revoked.