Violent Majorities 2.1: Peter Beinart on Long-Distance Israeli Ethnonationalism (LA, AS)

Feb 6, 2025

In this discussion, Peter Beinart, Editor at Jewish Currents and Professor at CUNY, dives into his timely book, "Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning." He challenges Zionist narratives and explores the moral responsibilities of Jewish identity amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beinart reflects on his family's experiences with apartheid in South Africa, connects the struggles of Gaza to broader global issues, and emphasizes the importance of solidarity and inclusivity within the Jewish community, particularly for younger voices.

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ANECDOTE

Early Zionist Influence

Peter Beinart's grandmother valued Israel's stability, influencing his early Zionism.
Witnessing his family's joy in Israel further solidified this view.

INSIGHT

Shifting Perspectives

Beinart's views evolved after witnessing the brutality in the West Bank and reading Palestinian literature.
He realized that Palestinian rights and a flourishing Jewish culture are not mutually exclusive.

INSIGHT

Book's Target and Approach

Beinart's book targets American Jews, aiming to reconcile their community's decency with support for Israeli policies.
He uses Jewish texts and rituals to address the narratives that filter out the realities of Palestinian oppression.

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Political anthropologists Ajantha Subramanian and Lori Allen are back to continue RTB's Violent Majorities series with a set of three episodes on long-distance ethno-nationalism. Today, they speak with Peter Beinart (an editor at Jewish Currents and Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York) about his just-released book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (Knopf, 2025). It aims to mobilize Jewish religious ethics and teachings to reach a Jewish-American audience shaped by Zionism. Beinart seeks to debunk myths that prevent many from realizing that the moral abominations committed against Palestinians are part of the Israeli settler-colonial-nation-state project.

Peter is haunted by the fact that some of the most ardent opposition to apartheid in his parents’ country of South Africa came from secular Jewish people, and is troubled by the nationalistic tendency of religiously observant Jews there in the apartheid era. The three also discuss questions of solidarity against and among authoritarians, Israel’s threat to international law, the dangers of minority alliances with majoritarian politics, campus politics, and the importance of seeing Gaza and Palestine as connected to us all.

Peter’s Recallable Book is Accepting the Yoke of Heaven: Commentary on the Weekly Torah Portion, by Orthodox scientist, philosopher, and Judaica scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), who emphasized the idolatry of investing the state with anything more than a supportive role in Jewish life.

Mentioned in the Episode:

119 Violent Majorities, Indian and Israeli Ethnonationalism. Episode 2: Natasha Roth-Rowland with Ajantha and Lori
Aparna Gopalan, "The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook," Jewish Currents.
Isabella Hammad, Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative.
Martin Luther King, Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message.
The Beinart Notebook podcast

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