Peter Beinart’s Zionism

Peter Beinart’s new book, The Crisis of Zionism, has sparked a debate between Israel’s apologists and critics. Much of that debate has focused on the quality of Beinart’s research into and analysis of contemporary Zionism. Bret Stephens in his review in Tablet magazine, for example, finds the book’s argument sloppy.

But Beinart’s treatment of historical Zionism is no less flawed. A self-described liberal Zionist, he makes the villain of his book Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most influential political descendant of Menachem Begin, who led the newly formed Likud party to victory in the parliamentary elections of 1977, an event that marked the end to the Left’s domination of Israeli politics.

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