I said that my next post would continue my discussion of Syria, but in the mean time I’ve come across an article that seems a particularly appropriate if not mandatory recommendation on this day.  It’s in the New York Review of Books, and its author is Peter Beinart.  Raised in an orthodox Jewish household, Beinart spent many years as an editor of The New Republic when that  magazine was a both a staunch advocate of an aggressive American foreign policy (Beinart and TNR were enthusiastic cheerleaders for George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq) and a vociferous defender of Israel.  He has evolved considerably since then.  In a 2010 essay, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Beinart chastised his co-religionists for failing to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.  He expanded that essay into a book, The Crisis of Zionism, a couple of years later.  (Full disclosure: I read the article, but not the book.)

In this new article in the New York Review, Beinart again takes his fellow Jews to task for their determined closure to any attempt at understanding the Palestinian perspective.   It’s worth a read, even if you’re not fasting today.