Peter Beinart used to be relevant. He even used to be sane.
That's difficult to believe, I know. But it's also true that The New Republic used to be worth reading, that The Atlantic wasn't 90 percent insane, and that Republicans thought that George W. Bush was right about Iraq.
Those days are long gone. These days, Peter Beinart is a crank who argues that if Israel would just integrate Gaza and the West Bank into Israel, grant all the Palestinians there full citizenship, the region would become a utopia, and the radicals would all become Nelson Mandelas hoping for reconciliation and a multicultural future of peace and prosperity.
Yeah, seems plausible enough. South Africa worked out pretty well, didn't it? Rhodesia turned into a paradise after it became Zimbabwe.
On Israel, Beinart mostly agrees with Hasan Piker, including why October 7th happened, and by extension 9/11. Atrocities are what oppressed people do. He will say the massacre was wrong. Then he files it under the occupation that "produced" it. You have to understand the "context" of October 7th?
No, you don't. It was an atrocity on a scale that boggles the mind, and Beinart argues that the solution is inviting Hamas and its supporters into Israel. That's Piker with the dirty word sanded off. Piker said America "deserved" 9/11, then walked it back to blowback. Beinart never had to say "deserved." He still puts the massacre in the victim's prior sins.
He agrees with Piker, so it's no surprise that Beinart has run to Abdul El-Sayed's defense and attacked Michigan Jews who are rallying against El-Sayed, arguing that allowing Israel to fall to Islamists is a small price to pay to fight Donald Trump and his obsession with burning the Earth to cinders or something.
I’d like to think that there’s an antisemite out there who is in favor of global warming because it will hurt Jews.
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) August 27, 2026
I believe in my heart that this person exists.
Yes, that's his argument. He reframes voting for El-Sayed as the only way to save the Earth, so Jews should get on board before they are incinerated by global warming.
It's quite the reframe. Most Jews are worried about incineration, but not by temperatures increasing a degree or two. They have more pressing issues on their minds. They look around and see the meteoric rise of antisemitism and the growing influence of Islamism on the American Left and elsewhere as an existential threat.
Beinart sees that as tribalism. He's all for The Science™ that says we are all doomed unless Democrats win the Senate. Jews worrying about silly little things like Islamism spreading are being silly when we have the entire Earth to save.
It's an absurd argument, of course, but it's the only one he's got. Abdul El-Sayed's campaign is steeped in antisemitism, as is the Left wing of the Democrat Party to whom Beinart is mortgaged, so he has to change the subject. The Jewish Democrats he is trying to persuade have rejected Beinart's absurd argument that a one-state solution would result in peace and prosperity — they see that the majority of Palestinians are bloodthirsty and want Jews, at minimum, gone from the region, and at maximum, all dead and, yes, incinerated.
It's striking that Beinart thinks of South Africa as a model. Mamdani points to South Africa as a model as well, so apparently this is now a talking point for the insane left, who believe that the symbolism of Nelson Mandela becoming President of South Africa in 1994 washes away the disaster that followed over the next thirty years.
Yeah, well, my heart swelled too in 1994; then reality intervened. I don't want to see something similar or worse happen in Israel or, God forbid, New York City or Detroit.
What Beinart is doing here is shifting the topic from real-world facts on the ground to notional, emotionally charged imagery. The Earth is burning! Trump is an autocrat! It's stupid and tiresome.
Of course, to the people who listen to Beinart, the point is that they are looking for what David Axelrod calls a "permission structure," another way of saying "a reason to do something that is wrong."
Climate change, to Beinart, is the emotional counterweight to Jews not wanting to be hunted.
Ironically, Beinart's argument against Jews supporting Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is that it is choosing tribalism over the higher purpose of defeating Trump and saving the Earth. But his counterargument is even more tribal, asserting that the importance of Democrats taking over the Senate in 2027 is more important than what actually happens to Jews in Israel or the United States of America.
Editor's Note: Do you enjoy HotAir's conservative reporting exposing the radical left and woke media? Support our work so we can keep bringing you the truth.
Join HotAir VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member