- This is a superb, thoroughly enlightening read. Beinart, in this short book, digs deep into the Israel-Palestine conflict and clarifies every contentious issue in lucid, clear prose.
- He is a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. And he is Jewish. He's frequently under attack by the Jewish lobby in the US, but refuses to be silent.
- The back cover blurb succinctly describes the essence of the book:
In Peter Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew?
- Beinart explores the origins of the conflict; Jewish beliefs about their ancestry as a 'chosen people'; other examples of racial, religious and colonial divides across the world, such as South Africa, Northern Ireland, and in the US, and how those conflicts were resolved, not totally but as best they could be. His scholarship and wisdom shine through, as does his compassion.
-An essential read.