Washington and Lee hosted journalist and author Peter Beinart earlier this month to discuss his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The conversation with Professor Seth Cantey was centered around Beinart’s newest book, “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.”
In the book, Beinart describes how he has witnessed Jewish texts and history being used as a justification for violence.
Beinart, a Jewish person himself, writes about what it now means to be a Jew and argues that Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy. He argues that Jewish and Palestinian safety is not mutually exclusive but connected.
Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. He is a frequent contributor to CNN, The New York Times and MSNBC.
Beinart was greeted by a full crowd in Northen Auditorium on Feb. 3. Cantey, the Lewis G. John Term Associate Professor of Politics and head of the university’s Middle East and South Asia Studies Program, facilitated the conversation.
Beinart greeted the crowd and said that he was grateful for those “who are traveling the most ideological distance,” to hear him speak.
He began by sharing parallels between the treatment of Palestinians today and the treatment of African Americans in the Jim Crow era. Currently, about five million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza do not have the right to vote, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Beinart discussed his opposition towards the two-state solution, a proposal to establish an independent Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.
He said he believes that a healthy binational state — one where Israelis and Palestinians coexist — is possible because Israel is already existing as a binational state.
The reasoning behind the extreme acts of violence in recent years, he said, stems from the Palestinians’ suppressed freedoms. If Palestinians are guaranteed basic freedoms, then peace between the two groups will be much more achievable, Beinart said.
Cantey said he is grateful that two years into the war, people are still paying attention and care about what is taking place in Israel and Palestine.
“Peter can be candid in a way that many people can’t,” said Cantey.
Cantey said he believes it is important that young people become educated on the Israel-Palestine conflict because of how universal the issue has become. What is taking place in Israel parallels what is taking place in many other places, including the U.S., he said.
“We are seeing that raw power matters more than norms and law around the world,” Cantey said.
He said he recommends Beinart’s new book as a great place to start when first learning about the topic because of its accessibility and explanation of the history of the conflict.
