Peter Beinart’s problem is that he uses a straw man to judge Israel — not reality (“Pushing Morality, A Victim Of Myopia,” March 23). He should compare Bibi Netanyahu with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Which country in the history of civilization continued to do business as usual during times of war as it did during times of peace? Has there ever been a society at war that did not alter the relationship between the state and the individual?
For Beinart to demand that Israel pick either democracy or Zionism is a false choice. And for him to raise this as an issue while Israel is at war is evidence that he suffers from a severe dislocation with reality.
Israel has been at war since it was founded 64 years ago, and the first 22 years were before there were any Israeli or Jewish settlements. And yet Netanyahu and all Israel’s prior prime ministers have governed far more democratically than did Roosevelt during World War II [when Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps].
And if Beinart needs a more accurate name for the area between the Jordan and Israel’s “Green Line” than Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, then “the disputed territories” is a designation that fits the reality according to international law.
Potomac, Md.
