I read it earlier this week and thought it was excellent. I was raised somewhat religious and am very secular as an adult -- frankly I'd love to be part of an anti-Zionist synagogue, but I don't know how to even start looking for that -- so it was really great to read someone who is expressly religious in his Judaism trying to reckon with the horror and make sense of it through exegesis.
Beinart really gets that this is a rupture point in our tradition, we have to develop a new way of understanding ourselves and metabolizing what it means that Israel is committing the most evil acts humankind is capable of in the name of (its twisted, ethnonationalist understanding of) the Jewish people. I'm really grateful that Beinart shows there are parts of Jewish thought and the Torah that have always been there which can help us make sense of this.
Zionist propaganda constantly equates Zionism with being a "good Jew," so it was really good to read someone objecting to that not just in the general sense of diasporic Jewish ethics rooted in solidarity, but specifically in a religious, textually-supported theory of what it actually means to be a good Jew.
I wasn't as hot on the last chapter, which frankly started to get a bit weirdly messianic IMHO, but I can't blame him for trying to articulate an inspiring vision in the middle of so much heartache and confusion and stumbling a bit.
Anyways, that's what I thought, curious if anyone in this sub has read the book and had a take.
Hi OP,
You might find our recent AMA with Peter interesting/helpful for questions re: the ideas in the book:
https://old.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1pbikj5/amapeter_beinart/
I used to be a fan and even got others to read that book of his before his recent lecture in Tel Aviv. The apology was appreciated but his self aggrandizing behavior in the preceding day was really appalling for someone who makes such a big deal of listening to Palestinians.
BDS is the bare minimum for an "anti-zionist" public figure like Beinart, and for me there will need to be an extended period of better behavior before I can take him seriously again.
What is “Tel Aviv”?
I think the significance of this is greatly exaggerated and reflects the kind of purity spiral behavior that always ends up damaging to the left
There has been a bit of character assassination on him going on recently in r_palestine. Got banned from there and a couple other subs for calling that out lol.
I don’t trust him. He’s always struck me as muddled and an attention seeker. I find he has not done enough to clarify and make amends for the decades he spent dehumanizing Arabs and Palestinians as a media gate keeper. He expects Palestinians to defer to him and offer him grace, but he done nothing to lift us up. His focus is his own elevation.