Beinart, Pollak, and Liberal Nationalism

Re: Peter Beinart and the Destruction of Liberal Zionism, Contentions, May 27, 2010. "Noah Pollak’s superb piece on Beinart prompts, first, my regret that I left Yale just before he arrived, so I can’t claim to have taught him anything. But it, along with Benjamin Kerstein’s essay on “Liberalism and Zionism,” prompts a further reflection. Both Noah and Ben argue that Beinart exemplifies the vacuity of liberalism. As Noah puts it, “Because the history of the peace process repudiates so many of liberalism’s most cherished premises, liberalism is increasingly repudiating Israel. . . . In this way, the failure of the liberal vision is transformed from being a verdict on liberalism to being a verdict on Israel.” True. But it is both more and less than that."