“Crisis in Zion Square: Can Peter Beinart Shake Up American Zionism?”

May 1, 2009

Israel, settlements, and boycotts, have been attracting something of a wave of attention recently. A small co-op in Brooklyn’s Park Slope has voted against implementing a ban on stocking any Israeli products. The ban would have had miniscule economic significance, but it hit the national mainstream press nonetheless. Meanwhile, Peter Beinart called for a boycott on any good produced in Israeli settlements, to be matched by re-investing in “Israel proper.” His column stirred up an even more intense debate, some of it quite vitriolic. Perhaps Beinart will trigger some soul-searching in Jewish communities in and outside of Israel. He should: the choices are not as simple and the prospects for progress not as bleak as is often assumed.

Read the full article here.