Peter Beinart

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Peter Beinart
Peter Beinart cropped.jpg
Beinart in June 2010
Born
Peter Alexander Beinart

1971
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationYale University (BA; Alpheus Henry Snow Prize)
University College, Oxford (MPhil)
Spouse(s)Diana Robin Hartstein (m. 2003; 2 children)[1]
FamilyRobert Brustein (step-father)

Peter Alexander Beinart (/ˈbaɪnərt/; born 1971) is an American columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of The New Republic, he has written for Time, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books among other periodicals. He is also the author of three books. He is a professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is an editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, a contributor to The Atlantic, a political commentator for CNN, and a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace.[2]

Early life and education[]

Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents were Jewish immigrants from South Africa (his maternal grandfather was from Russia, and his maternal grandmother, who was Sephardic, was from Egypt).[3][4][5] His father's parents were from Lithuania.[6] His mother, Doreen (née Pienaar), is a former director of the Harvard's Human Rights film series[dubious – discuss] at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his father, Julian Beinart is a former professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] His stepfather is theatre critic and playwright Robert Brustein.[7] Beinart attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge.

He then studied history and political science at Yale University, where he was a member of the Yale Political Union and graduated in 1993 with the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize. He was a Rhodes Scholar at University College, Oxford University, where he earned an M.Phil. in international relations in 1995.[8]

Career[]

Beinart worked at The New Republic as the managing editor from 1995 to 1997, then as senior editor until 1999, and as the magazine's editor from 1999 to 2006. For much of that time he also wrote The New Republic's "TRB" column, which was reprinted in the New York Post and other newspapers. From 2007 until 2009 he was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Beinart is Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He has written for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and other periodicals. He has appeared on various TV news discussion programs and is a political commentator for CNN.[8] His editor-in-chief at the Forward called him a "wunderkind".[9][10] In March 2012, Beinart launched a new blog, "Open Zion", at Newsweek/The Daily Beast.[11] He was also a senior political writer for The Daily Beast.[citation needed] In 2012, Beinart was included on Foreign Policy magazine's list of 100 top global thinkers.[12]

On November 4, 2013, Haaretz announced that Beinart would be hired as a columnist beginning January 1, 2014.[13] The same day, the Atlantic Media Company said he would join National Journal and write for The Atlantic's website beginning in January.[citation needed] Beinart would cease operating his blog at The Daily Beast.[14] In January 2017 he left Haaretz and became a columnist for The Forward,[15] where he stayed until the beginning of 2020, when he joined Jewish Currents as an editor-at-large.[16]

In August 2018, Beinart said he was detained by Shin Bet at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and questioned about his presence at West Bank protests and outspoken criticism of the Israeli government's policies toward the Palestinians. Beinart called his experience "trivial" when compared to the experiences of others, particularly Palestinians and Palestinian Americans who travel through Israel's main airport.[17][18] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Israeli security forces, was told that Beinart's detention was an administrative mistake, and that the country "welcomes all—critics and supporters alike."[19]

Works and views[]

Beinart was the editor of The New Republic when it came out in support of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, and was identified as one of the major forces behind the magazine's support for the war; his status as a liberal hawk who supported the Iraq War is cited as a primary causes of his rise.[20][21][22][23] In 2004, a New Republic editorial written during his editorial tenure assessed its support for the Iraq War thus: "We feel regret, but no shame. . . . Our strategic rationale for war has collapsed."[20] In 2010, Beinart said he was motivated to support the Iraq War by a concern that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons.[24]

Beinart is the author of the 2006 book The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.[citation needed] The book, which grew out of a 2004 article in The New Republic arguing that Democrats need to take the threat of Islamic totalitarianism more seriously, is a liberal defense of muscular interventionism abroad, particularly with a view to reforming various nations in the Middle East.[25]

Beinart's second book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (2010), "look[ed] back at the past hundred years of U.S. foreign policy in the baleful light of recent events [and found] the ground littered with ... the remnants of large ideas and unearned confidence [as demonstrable in] a study of three needless wars", World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War.[9]

In his 2010 New York Review of Books essay "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment",[26] Beinart argues that by abetting Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, American Jewish leaders risk alienating generations of younger American Jews who find the occupation morally wrong and incompatible with their liberal politics.[3]

In 2016, Beinart said that greater military engagement against ISIS could be detrimental to the U.S.[27] He also attracted criticism for proposing that the U.S. secure peace in East Asia by allowing China to take control of Taiwan.[28]

In a 2018 essay in The Atlantic, Beinart wrote that Trump voters care more about murder by illegal immigrants than about the cover-up of Trump's affairs.[29] He also wrote in 2018 that authoritarian nationalism was on the rise in many countries. He said the common thread among right-wing autocrats is a hostility to liberal democracy and the desire to subordinate women.[30][31]

In a 2020 essay, Beinart rejected the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in favor of a one-state solution,[32] detailing his views further in Jewish Currents[33] and the New York Times.[32] Arguing that the two-state model has become untenable and that Israel's permanent control over millions of Palestinians who lack basic rights will result in war and perhaps even ethnic cleansing, Beinart instead advocated a fully democratic binational state representing both Jewish and Palestinian identity, along the lines of Belgium or Northern Ireland following the Good Friday Agreement.[33]

Subsequent commentary in the media ranged from praise[34] to allegations of dishonesty;[35][36][37] author Daniel Gordis wrote, "Beinart strings together an astonishing array of sleights of hand and misrepresentations ... little more than a screed that is an insult to the intelligence of his readers."[38]

Personal life[]

As of 2012, Beinart lives in New York City.[8] He keeps kosher,[3] regularly attends an Orthodox synagogue, and sends his children to a Jewish school.[39]

Publications[]

  • The Crisis of Zionism. New York, NY: Times Books. 2012. ISBN 978-0-8050-9412-1.
  • The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris. New York, NY: HarperCollins. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-145646-6.
  • Peter Beinart (June 10, 2010). "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment". The New York Review of Books.
  • The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror. New York, NY: HarperCollins. 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-084161-4.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Weddings and Celebrations; Diana Hartstein, Peter Beinart". The New York Times. October 26, 2003. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  2. ^ "- Foundation for Middle East Peace". Foundation for Middle East Peace. December 19, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Allison Hoffman (March 22, 2012). "Lightning Rod". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  4. ^ "Rebecca Goldberg, the Northeast Regional Director USD/Hagshama (University Student Division) of the World Zionist Organization". www.angelfire.com.
  5. ^ Beinart, Peter (28 March 2012). "Rethinking Zionism".
  6. ^ Beinart, Peter (December 16, 2016). "The Day My Father Lost His Country". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  7. ^ "Weddings and Celebrations; Jean Beinart and Craig Stern". The New York Times. June 12, 2005. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Peter Beinart profile". The New America Foundation. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b George Packer (June 28, 2010). "Air America: Peter Beinart's The Icarus Syndrome ..." The New Yorker. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  10. ^ Jane Eisner (March 28, 2012). "Peter Beinart's problematic 'Zionist BDS' proposal". The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  11. ^ Marc Tracy (March 9, 2012). "Beinart Launches Daily Beast Blog. 'Zion Square' touts Israeli, Palestinian, U.S. perspectives on the Mideast". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  12. ^ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. 28 November 2012. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  13. ^ "Peter Beinart to join Haaretz as senior columnist". Haaretz. November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  14. ^ Byers, Dylan (November 4, 2013). "Peter Beinart leaving Daily Beast for The Atlantic Media Company, Haaretz". Politico. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  15. ^ "Peter Beinart Joins the Forward as Senior Columnist". The Forward. December 21, 2016. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  16. ^ Dolsten, Josefin (January 29, 2020). "Prominent liberal writer Peter Beinart leaves Forward for progressive Jewish Currents". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  17. ^ "Israel questions prominent Jewish-American critic at airport". Associated Press. August 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  18. ^ Beinart, Peter (August 13, 2018). "Peter Beinart: I Was Detained At Ben Gurion Airport Because Of My Beliefs". The Forward. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  19. ^ Weber Rosen, Jonathan (August 14, 2018). "LEFT-WING COLUMNIST PETER BEINART DETAINED AT BEN-GURION AIRPORT". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b Kurtz, Howard (2004-06-19). "New Republic Editors 'Regret' Their Support of Iraq War". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  21. ^ Malone, Noreen (2021-05-14). "Why So Many Liberals Supported Invading Iraq". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  22. ^ Beinart, Peter (2003-03-03). "A Separate Peace". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  23. ^ Nast, Condé (2021-05-23). "A Liberal Zionist's Move to the Left on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  24. ^ "Unrepentant liberal hawk still has a feather to fly with — United States Studies Centre". www.ussc.edu.au. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  25. ^ "Peter Beinart on Liberals, Terrorism and the War in Iraq". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  26. ^ Peter Beinart (June 10, 2010). "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  27. ^ Beinart, Peter. "Why Attacking ISIS Won't Make Americans Safer". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  28. ^ "Let's Wake up the Left on Taiwan".
  29. ^ Beinart, Peter (August 22, 2018). "Why Trump Supporters Believe He Is Not Corrupt". Atlantic. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  30. ^ Beinart, Peter (2018-12-12). "The New Authoritarians Are Waging War on Women". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
  31. ^ Palmer, Anna; Sherman, Jake; Lippman, Daniel. "POLITICO Playbook: Zinke is out, and Mulvaney will be the next chief". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
  32. ^ Jump up to: a b Beinart, Peter (2020-07-08). "Opinion | I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-20.
  33. ^ Jump up to: a b Peter Beinart (July 7, 2020). "Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine". Jewish Currents. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  34. ^ @brhodes (8 July 2020). "Peter Beinart is brave, thoughtful, and capable of evolving views. Which is why we should read this carefully and remember that most of Peter's critics are working off talking points that are dishonest and decades old" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  35. ^ Marquardt-Bigman, Petra (July 9, 2020). "The Increasing Radicalism of Peter Beinart Must Be Confronted". Algemeiner. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  36. ^ Rogan, Tom (8 July 2020). "A one-state solution would be catastrophic for Israel". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  37. ^ @DanielBShapiro (July 9, 2020). "1. With all due respect to @PeterBeinart, calling for one state for Israelis and Palestinians is neither original, nor a remotely viable solution to this long-running conflict. It's a disaster in the making for Israelis, the Jewish people, Palestinians, and US interests" (Tweet). Retrieved July 17, 2020 – via Twitter.
  38. ^ Gordis, Daniel (July 8, 2020). "End the Jewish State? Let's try some honesty, first". The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  39. ^ Beinart, Peter (March 18, 2012). Opinion section (ed.). "To Save Israel, Boycott the Settlements". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2012.

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