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Peter Beinart

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Peter Beinart
Born
Peter Alexander Beinart

(1971-02-28) February 28, 1971 (age 53)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationYale University (BA)
University College, Oxford (MPhil)
Children2
RelativesRobert Brustein (step-father)

Peter Alexander Beinart (/ˈbaɪnərt/; born February 28, 1971) is an American liberal[1] columnist, journalist, and political commentator.[2] A former editor of The New Republic, he has also written for Time, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books, among other periodicals. He has written four books.

He 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 an editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, a contributing opinion columnist at The New York Times, a political commentator for MSNBC, and a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace.[3]

Early life and education

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Beinart was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His parents were Jewish immigrants from South Africa (his maternal grandfather was from Russia, and his maternal grandmother, who was Sephardic, was from Egypt).[4][5][6] His father's parents were from Lithuania.[7] His mother, Doreen (née Pienaar), is a former director of the human-rights film program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University,[8] and his father, Julian Beinart, is a former professor of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[9] His stepfather is theatre critic and playwright Robert Brustein.[10] Beinart attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge.

He studied history and political science at Yale College, where he was a member of the Yale Political Union and graduated in 1993 with the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize. He was a Rhodes Scholar at University College, Oxford University, where he earned an M.Phil. in international relations in 1995.[11]

Career

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Beinart worked at The New Republic as the managing editor from 1995 to 1997, then as senior editor until 1999, and as the magazine's editor from 1999 to 2006. For much of that time he also wrote The New Republic's "TRB" column, which was reprinted in the New York Post and other newspapers. From 2007 until 2009 he was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Beinart is Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He has written for Time, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and other periodicals. He has appeared on various TV news discussion programs and is a political commentator for MSNBC.[11] His editor-in-chief at the Forward called him a "wunderkind".[12][13] He was also a senior political writer for The Daily Beast.[14] On March 12, 2012, Beinart launched a new group blog, "Zion Square", renamed "Open Zion" two weeks later, at The Daily Beast/Newsweek.[15][16][17] Also in 2012, Beinart was included on Foreign Policy magazine's list of 100 top global thinkers.[18]

On November 4, 2013, Haaretz announced that Beinart would be hired as a columnist beginning January 1, 2014.[19] The same day, the Atlantic Media Company said he would join National Journal and write for The Atlantic's website beginning in January,[20] and a statement from The Daily Beast said "Open Zion" would cease.[20] In 2017, Beinart left Haaretz and became a columnist for The Forward,[21] where he stayed until 2020, when he joined Jewish Currents as an editor-at-large.[22]

In August 2018, Beinart was detained by Shin Bet at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport and questioned about his presence at West Bank protests and outspoken criticism of the Israeli government's policies toward the Palestinians. Beinart called his experience "trivial" when compared to the experiences of others, particularly Palestinians and Palestinian Americans who travel through Israel's main airport.[23][24] A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Israeli security forces how it happened and was told that Beinart's detention was an administrative mistake. The statement continued, "Israel is an open society which welcomes all—critics and supporters alike."[25][26]

Works and views

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Beinart was the editor of The New Republic when the publication editorially supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq; Beinart was identified as one of the major forces behind the magazine's support for the war.[27][28][29][30] In 2004, a New Republic editorial written during his editorial tenure assessed its support for the Iraq War thus: "We feel regret, but no shame. ... Our strategic rationale for war has collapsed."[27] In 2010, Beinart said he was motivated to support the Iraq War by a concern that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons.[31]

Beinart is the author of the 2006 book The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.[32] The book, which grew out of a 2004 article in The New Republic arguing that Democrats need to take the threat of Islamic totalitarianism more seriously, is a liberal defense of muscular interventionism abroad, particularly with a view to reforming various nations in the Middle East.[33]

Beinart's second book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (2010), was born from his desire to understand how he had gotten the Iraq War so wrong. It "look[ed] back at the past hundred years of U.S. foreign policy in the baleful light of recent events [and found] the ground littered with ... the remnants of large ideas and unearned confidence [as demonstrable in] a study of three needless wars", World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War.[12]

Beinart's third book Is The Crisis of Zionism (2012). It describes his views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Particularly, Beinart contends that policies advocated by Zionists, especially under Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud government, are increasingly at odds with liberal ideals.[34]

Beinart's fourth book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, is slated for release in January 2025.[35]

Personal life

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As of 2012, Beinart lives in New York City.[11] He keeps kosher,[4] regularly attends an Orthodox synagogue, and has sent his children to a Jewish day school.[36]

Publications

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  • The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror. New York, New York: HarperCollins. 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-084161-4.
  • The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris. New York, New York: HarperCollins. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-145646-6.
  • Peter Beinart (June 10, 2010). "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment". The New York Review of Books.
  • The Crisis of Zionism. New York, New York: Times Books. 2012. ISBN 978-0-8050-9412-1.

References

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  1. ^ Spinelli, Dan (February 4, 2022). "There's a big tent opposing US intervention in Ukraine. Tucker Carlson is stretching its limits". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  2. ^ "Geni.com". 28 February 1971.
  3. ^ "- Foundation for Middle East Peace". Foundation for Middle East Peace. December 19, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  4. ^ a b Allison Hoffman (March 22, 2012). "Lightning Rod". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  5. ^ "Rebecca Goldberg, the Northeast Regional Director USD/Hagshama (University Student Division) of the World Zionist Organization". Angelfire.
  6. ^ Beinart, Peter (28 March 2012). "Rethinking Zionism".
  7. ^ Beinart, Peter (December 16, 2016). "The Day My Father Lost His Country". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  8. ^ "Jean Beinart and Craig Stern". The New York Times. 12 June 2005. Retrieved 4 October 2022. Her mother is the director of the human-rights film program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
  9. ^ "Weddings and Celebrations; Diana Hartstein, Peter Beinart". The New York Times. October 26, 2003. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  10. ^ "Weddings and Celebrations; Jean Beinart and Craig Stern". The New York Times. June 12, 2005. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  11. ^ a b c "Peter Beinart profile". The New America Foundation. Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  12. ^ a b George Packer (June 28, 2010). "Air America: Peter Beinart's The Icarus Syndrome ..." The New Yorker. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  13. ^ Jane Eisner (March 28, 2012). "Peter Beinart's problematic 'Zionist BDS' proposal". The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  14. ^ Beinart, Peter (January 25, 2010). "Democrats, Don't Despair". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 24, 2024. "Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast" is in a note following the article.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  15. ^ Marc Tracy (March 9, 2012). "Beinart Launches Daily Beast Blog. 'Zion Square' touts Israeli, Palestinian, U.S. perspectives on the Mideast". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
  16. ^ Beinart, Peter (March 12, 2012). "Why Open Zion?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 20, 2024. Originally entitled Why Zion Square?.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  17. ^ Beinart, Peter (March 26, 2012). "Welcome to Open Zion". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  18. ^ "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. 28 November 2012. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
  19. ^ "Peter Beinart to join Haaretz as senior columnist". Haaretz. November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  20. ^ a b Byers, Dylan (November 4, 2013). "Peter Beinart leaving Daily Beast for The Atlantic Media Company, Haaretz". Politico. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
  21. ^ "Peter Beinart Joins the Forward as Senior Columnist". The Forward. December 21, 2016. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  22. ^ Dolsten, Josefin (January 29, 2020). "Prominent liberal writer Peter Beinart leaves Forward for progressive Jewish Currents". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  23. ^ "Israel questions prominent Jewish-American critic at airport". Associated Press. August 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  24. ^ Beinart, Peter (August 13, 2018). "Peter Beinart: I Was Detained At Ben Gurion Airport Because Of My Beliefs". The Forward. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  25. ^ Rosen, Jonathan Weber (August 14, 2018). "Left-wing Columnist Peter Beinart Detained at Ben-Gurion Airport". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
  26. ^ Lubell, Maayan (August 13, 2018). Lawson, Hugh (ed.). "U.S. Journalist Questioned by Israeli Security Authorities". Reuters. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  27. ^ a b Kurtz, Howard (2004-06-19). "New Republic Editors 'Regret' Their Support of Iraq War". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  28. ^ Malone, Noreen (2021-05-14). "Why So Many Liberals Supported Invading Iraq". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  29. ^ Beinart, Peter (2003-03-03). "A Separate Peace". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  30. ^ "A Liberal Zionist's Move to the Left on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict". The New Yorker. 2021-05-23. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  31. ^ "Unrepentant liberal hawk still has a feather to fly with — United States Studies Centre". www.ussc.edu.au. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  32. ^ Roberts, Marcus A. (July 2007). "The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, Peter Beinart (HarperCollins, 2006), 304 pp., $25.95 cloth". Ethics & International Affairs. 21 (2): 269–271. doi:10.1111/j.1747-7093.2007.00079.x. ISSN 1747-7093.
  33. ^ "Peter Beinart on Liberals, Terrorism and the War in Iraq". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  34. ^ https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250026736/thecrisisofzionism
  35. ^ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775348/being-jewish-after-the-destruction-of-gaza-by-peter-beinart/
  36. ^ Beinart, Peter (March 18, 2012). Opinion section (ed.). "To Save Israel, Boycott the Settlements". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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