“Beinart Advocates Partial Boycott”

May 1, 2009

I promise that soon this will cease being an all-Peter Beinart blog. But the fact is that in the run-up to the release in one week of his The Crisis of Zionism, he really has been, as they say, driving the conversation, so for now attention must be paid. What I mean to say is, it’s not often that a New York Times op-ed provokes a same-day response from the Israeli ambassador.

In the op-ed, which is adopted (though it doesn’t say so) from the final section of Beinart’s book, Beinart comes out in favor of something he calls, with an obvious sense of paradox, “Zionist B.D.S.”—a boycott of goods made in the settlements combined with renewed support for Israel within the Green Line (as well as East Jerusalem, which after all has been annexed by Israel). He also advocates referring to the West Bank as “nondemocratic Israel.” “If Israel makes the occupation permanent and Zionism ceases to be a democratic project, Israel’s foes will eventually overthrow Zionism itself,” he argues. “We are closer to that day than many American Jews want to admit.”

Read the full article here.