World
Questioning Israel
Beinart pins his controversial thesis
to the synagogue door.
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Peter Beinart once edited the New Republic.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
p
eter Beinart attends an
Orthodox synagogue, once
edited the New Republic (the
closest thing to a smichah for Jewish
policy wonks) and backed Sen. Joe
Lieberman's quixotic 2004 bid to
become the first Jewish president.
Which is why he's always been
counted among the Washington pun-
dits who defend Israel, Zionism and
the right of American Jews to lobby
for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.
Beinart also frets about how Jewish
his kids will be.
Which is why he worries about how
Israel behaves, how it is perceived
and what it means for American
Jewry. And why, he says, he published
a lengthy essay in the New York
Review of Books in May arguing that
American Jews are becoming alien-
ated from Israel and blaming U.S.
Jewish groups for refusing to criticize
the Israeli government's perceived
rightward shift.
"Having kids makes you react dif-
ferently to things," Beinart told JTA,
speaking of what brought about his
5,000-word (not counting several
subsequent rebuttals to rebuttals)
essay.
"It made me think more, not about
my own Zionist identity, but about
what Zionism was going to be avail-
able to them:' Beinart said. "I began
to grow more and more concerned
about the choice they would make,
which would have been agonizing
for me to watch unfold" — between
an American universalism stripped
of Zionism or an "anti-universalistic
Zionism that has strong elements in