The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Beinart, Bloodied

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Many whacks have been taken by now at Peter Beinart's essay "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment" including in this space (here's Phil, here's me), in which Beinart wrung his hands over young American Jews turning away from supporting the Jewish state (a wildly overstated premise, by the way). But Andy Ferguson's devastating takedown of Beinart, tracing his career trajectory over more than a decade, cannot be improved upon. I won't even excerpt it; it's fairly short, so read the whole thing and enjoy.

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SoCon| 9.4.10 @ 11:49PM

Ouch, Ferguson's smack down had to leave a mark!

I ALMOST feel sorry for the smug, snotty Beinart.

martin j smith| 9.5.10 @ 11:14AM

Well amnything writen in the New York review of Books must be "true" and "objective". Let me give my oppi9nion about American Jews--purely anecdotal-not scientific etc.
First of all I would say this: Anyone who says they are Jewish and joins of chorus against Israel is not my kind of Jew--if that person is actually Jewish at all. I have read and forgive me for not recalling the precise polster, but there has been a shift AGAINST OBABA--not as big as I would like but definite. From about 3 to 1 for democrats and Obama in 2008 t6o about 3 to 2. Given jewish voting history this is not insignifcant. Thus Obama went scrambling for these so called Rabbis
to help him deal with the Jewish vote which he is losing.

As for the Liberal Jews. here is my take on them: You know the deal about sauce with meat or meat with sauce. Well applying this to the Libera ( read Socialist ) Jews its Socialism with Jewishness--Socialism being predominant in thinking over Jewishness if there is any connection to Jewry at all. There are many people who call themselves Rabbis or Priests or whatever--but who they really are well that is another matter. I perused the Beinhardt essay and there so many issues and distortions I would not want to even try --too much effort to be sure. But Peter Beinhardt ( is he a Scoailist Jew by the way ?) reaally has nothing in common with me. I see the Stat of Israel islolated, --they are David versus the rest of the world the Goliath. And, Netenyahu has the precarious and frightening responsibility of defending Israe.l and in turn the Jewish people. He has no friend in Barak Obama. One of my theories is that Netenyahu as other PMs have been threatened or black mailed by US presidents --being forced into position that are opposed to Israel's interests. These current talks are no exception. But is essence Socialist Jews are not in view real Jews because they do not recognize the constant danger to Jewry world wide thru rising Anti-Semitism and do not connect the notion of the State of Israel as a testament to the survival of the Jewish people. They mare too detached and indifferent sort of like Socialists are detached from American's being attack on 9/11. It was our fault. If anything I would like to see American Jewish Organizations be more agressive in support of Israe.