Peter Beinart’s Wake-Up Call to the U.S. Jewish Establishment

May 17, 2010

Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of J Street, responded to Peter Beinart’s recent essay entitled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment” in the New York Review of Books with the following statement:

Peter Beinart has written what I hope will be a powerful wake-up call to the leadership of the American Jewish establishment. J Street shares Beinart’s deep concern over the consequences of the course that leadership has chosen: blind support of Israel ‘right-or-wrong’ and demonization and black-listing of those who disagree with Israeli policy. Beinart – with his impeccable pro-Israel credentials – is hopefully an effective messenger to convince the American Jewish establishment that it is not simply enabling self-destructive Israeli behavior that is damaging American interests, it is sowing the seeds for the end of the American Jewish community as we know it.