What Beinart Is Spawning: Brave New "Zionism"

Is this becoming the new Brave Beinart World?

From a NYTimes oped:-

Yes, there are risks for Israel in allowing a Palestinian state. But as Jews, we cannot tolerate a Jewish state that ignores its own Declaration of Independence and the teachings of our sages over thousands of years. A state that persecutes, deprives and denies its neighbors in a manner so similar to what our tormentors did to us cannot be acceptable.

That was from Stephen Robert, formerly a principal owner of the investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. and chancellor of Brown University, who currently chairman and cofounder of the Source of Hope Foundation. In Israel, it supports Hand-in-Hand, a center for Jewish-Arab education in Israel:-

Hand-in-Hand's mission is to build a network of integrated schools in Israel bringing together Arab and Jewish children for an education that spans both culture and languages. Classes are taught both in Hebrew and in Arabic...The organization's vision "Learning together – Living together", reflects the goal of creating a more peaceful, pluralistic and democratic society in Israel.

And in "Palestine", supports three programs:

...helping Palestinian trained engineers develop a software outsourcing industry similar to the Indian model...a sports group which helps disabled Palestinian athletes. This endeavor has sent Palestinian athletes to the International Para-Olympics competition...The Parent's Circle...

Peter Beinart seems to have let loose all the devils pent up in liberal, humanist, progressive Jews who now are making common cause with Israel's enemies. Robert also thinks:-

...can the Jewish people segue from deeply ingrained victimhood to the moral and practical dictates of being a major power?...Israel is losing the moral high ground through much of the world.  How can a people persecuted for so long act so brutally when finally attaining power? Will we continuously see the world as 1938, or can we use the strength of our new power to forgive, while never forgetting the lessons of our past?

Much of the world, of course, just like in 1938, couldn't care about the Jews.  And how could Israel be "brutal"?  Well, a 90-year old Arab terror campaign, continuing today, refusal to accept diplomatic overtures, specifically targeting civilians, mendacious propaganda, et al., could be the cause.  Mr. Robert, the Arabs are the primary cause and it is their responsibility to right it.  But for someone who thinks like this:

Palestinians will have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, essentially abandoning the right of return...Ideally, Fatah and Hamas will form a unity government and Hamas will rewrite its untenable charter.

and presume it will happen is someone who is ideologically lost.

And is Beinart to blame?   Well, at Mondoweiss they think so:

I keep underestimating the Beinart effect. Three recent developments show Beinart's power. 1, Huffpo ripping off Beinart's Open Zion blog at the Daily Beast, 2, Stephen Robert's "God help an infant born in Palestine" op-ed in the IHT yesterday, and 3, Paul Krugman's support for Beinart in the Times. The liberal Zionists are having their moment...The Stephen Robert piece in the IHT, "A Reset in Jewish Thinking," borrows a lot from Beinart: for a start, the Hail Mary pass for the two-state solution. And also the idea that Jews are powerful in a way we've never been before...Beinart's book is allowing Jews to come out in a way they refused to do when Walt and Mearsheimer said it, because Walt and Mearsheimer made the mistake of being goyim.

And we learn that Robert had published an earlier version of his op-ed piece in The Nation which includes this:

...What I witnessed in the West Bank—home to about 2.5 million Palestinians and 400,000 Israeli settlers—exceeded my worst expectations. While the world’s statesmen have dithered, Israel has created a system of apartheid on steroids, a horrifying prison...How can Jews, who have been persecuted for centuries, tolerate this inhumanity? Where is their moral compass? How can this situation be acceptable to Judaism’s spiritual and political leaders? I don’t have that answer; except to say that Israel’s biggest enemy has become itself...That Israel has the upper hand now portends nothing about the future. A small state of 7 million holding 4 million neighbors in prison, without opportunity, sufficient medical care, food, water and equal justice is not a sustainable situation. When, eventually, stasis gives way to unimaginable change, it will be too late to alter course. Israel, “right or wrong,” a position taken by many, will lead to a catastrophe. It represents a suspension of critical thought; characteristic of many radical ideologies. Friends of Israel would serve it better to know the true facts and then drive Israel toward a moral and practical solution...Israel must regain the moral imperative, to disarm its enemies and secure its friends. Many believe there is an international campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state. At this point Israel is delegitimizing itself.

Yes, Beinart's Brave New Zionism is a rerun of Jewish anti-Zionism.  It ignores the threats even while noting them but dismissing them.  It promotes a liberalism that seeks to install a decidely undemocratic and oppressive regime in power.  It subverts the true demands of morality in international relations.  It derides any authentic expression of the rights of Jewish nationhood. 

In short, it is embarrassed by Jewish bravery and seeks the 'comfort' of the traditional Jewish postion amongst the nations which only can lead to a repeat of attempts to destroy the state of Israel and annihilate Jews by promoting the "it's the Jews' fault" calumny.

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