Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-269) and index.
Contents
The crisis in Israel -- The crisis in America -- Should American Jews criticize Israel? -- Is the occupation Israel's fault? -- The Jewish president -- The illiberal Zionist -- The clash -- The humbling -- The future.
Summary
Peter Beinart lays out in chilling detail the looming danger to Israeli democracy and the American Jewish establishment's refusal to confront it. And he offers a fascinating, groundbreaking portrait of the two leaders at the center of the crisis: Barack Obama, America's first "Jewish president," a man steeped in the liberalism he learned from his many Jewish friends and mentors in Chicago; and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who considers liberalism the Jewish people's special curse. These two men embody fundamentally different visions not just of American and Israeli national interests but of the mission of the Jewish people itself.
