Peter Beinart, "To Save Israel, Boycott the Settlements": Bullshit

Ordinarily, I avoid appending callous appellations to opinion pieces, be they in The New York Times or elsewhere. Today, I am making an exception. Peter Beinart's contributor op-ed in The New York Times, entitled "To Save Israel, Boycott the Settlements" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/opinion/to-save-israel-boycott-the-settlements.html?ref=opinion), is indeed bullshit.

Read Beinart's opinion piece. Now read it again. What is missing? Remarkably Beinart makes no mention of the fact that more than 300 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza last week at civilian targets in southern Israel, including Ashdod, Israel's seventh largest city, and Beersheba, Israel's eighth largest city. Not relevant? Yeah, right. In September 2005, Israel unilaterally evacuated the Gaza Strip, and since that time, more than 10,000 projectiles have been fired at Israeli kibbutzim, towns and cities. Make no doubt about it: This shelling of Israeli civilian communities is a war crime.

Beinart blithely ignores this criminal behavior, and calls for a boycott of Israeli settlements on the West Bank (or "nondemocratic Israel" as he labels it), presumably until such time as there is also an Israeli evacuation of the West Bank.

Attempting to establish his credentials for demanding this boycott, Beinart tells us:

"I am a committed Jew. I belong to an Orthodox synagogue, send my children to Jewish school and yearn to instill in them the same devotion to the Jewish people that my parents instilled in me."

Well, unlike Beinart, I am not an Orthodox Jew, and I didn't send my children to "Jewish school." However, also unlike Beinart, I live in Israel, and I have witnessed first hand the firing of missiles from Iraq into Tel Aviv during the First Gulf War in 1991 (my apartment shook from the concussions); automatic weapons fire from Beit Jala in the West Bank, under Palestinian Authority control, into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo between 2000 and 2002 (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/30/world/gilo-waits-for-deliverance-as-mideast-violence-goes-on.html?pagewanted=1); and the incessant shooting of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel since 2005.

I want a two-state solution. I also sincerely wish for a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state. But I am also aware that Ben Gurion Airport is just five miles away from the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank. I also know that Israel is only eight miles wide at its waist, with the Mediterranean to the west and the Palestinian Authority to the east, and much of Israel's population wedged in between.

Yes, I very much want Israel out of the West Bank with territorial swaps as needed, but I'm not about to agree to this until someone on the other side acknowledges my right to exist. Sorry, Peter, but as noted earlier, I actually live in Israel, and I'm not ready to agree to perpetual rocket fire also on Tel Aviv, Haifa and Netanya.

Beinart refers to "the settlement of Ariel, which stretches deep into the West Bank." "Deep" into the West Bank? Ariel is all of 11 miles east of the Green Line, and is certain to be included in any ultimate territorial swap between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. And whereas Beinart observes that there are some 300,000 Jews living in West Bank settlements, he fails to note, as acknowledged by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, that the settlements cover only 1.1 percent of the West Bank (see: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/17/settlements-obstacle-to-peace/).

Here's an idea for Beinart: Israel will swap the town of Qalansawe, inhabited by Israeli Arabs, for Ariel in the West Bank. Qalansawe and Ariel have almost identical populations (some 18,000 each) and are almost equidistant from the Green Line, to the west and to the east, respectively. The problem: the Arab Israeli inhabitants of Qalansawe will refuse to be annexed to the Palestinian Authority, where they will be deprived of their democratic rights.

Regarding Beinart's reference to "nondemocratic Israel," he conveniently forgets to mention that although Palestinian Authority President Abbas was elected to serve until January 2009, Abbas unilaterally extended his term for another year and continues in office long after the expiration of the new deadline for elections. Hamas similarly continues to rule Gaza without new elections. Nevertheless, Beinart would have us believe that only Israel is depriving the Palestinians of their democratic rights.

Beinart concludes:

"If Israel makes the occupation permanent and Zionism ceases to be a democratic project, Israel’s foes will eventually overthrow Zionism itself.

We are closer to that day than many American Jews want to admit."

Needless to say, Beinart ignores the peace proposals proffered by former Israeli prime ministers Barak and Olmert to their counterparts Arafat and Abbas, premised upon the 1967 lines with land swaps and a division of Jerusalem, and, in the case of Olmert's proposal, with the sharing of Jerusalem's holy places. These peace proposals were rejected by Arafat and Abbas.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also supports the concept of "two states for two peoples." In his May 24, 2011 speech before the US Congress, Netanyahu declared:

"We must also find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Two years ago, I publicly committed to a solution of two states for two peoples: A Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state."

However, acknowledgment of Netanyahu's readiness for a two-state solution is not in keeping with the premise of Beinart's new book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” which is being recommended by no less an authority than Roger ("Iran is not totalitarian") Cohen (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/cohen-the-dilemmas-of-jewish-power.html).

Thanks, Peter, but you know what you can do with your advice.