https://pca.st/episode/c4c09ed4-0802-4c22-89ec-498c865fb435

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"This episode isn't focused on a single topic or text, but rather just wanting to have a wide-ranging conversation with our guest, Peter Beinart, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents and author of the recent book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. We start by discussing the appalling wave of Islamophobic attacks against Zohran Mamdani during the last weeks of his victorious mayoral campaign, the short-sighted embrace of such bigotry by too many American Jews and Jewish institutions, the current iterations of anti-semitism roiling the right, religious tradition and progressive politics, changing your mind, and more. Listen again: "Elon Musk, the Jews, and the ADL" (w/ Mari Cohen, Alex Kane, & Peter Beinart), Sept 26, 2023 Sources: Zohran Mamdani, "My Message to Muslim New Yorkers—and Everyone Who Calls This City Home," YouTube, Oct 24, 2025 Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (2025) Mark Mazower, On Antisemitism: A Word in History, (2025) Arwa Mahdawi, "Mamdani's Mayoral Race was Marred by Unhinged Islamophobia. It's Not Going Away Soon," The Guardian, Nov 6, 2025 Romanus Cessario, O.P., "Non Possumus," First Things, Feb 1, 2018 George Washington, "To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island," August 18, 1790 ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!"

11/22/2025 10:48:14 AM

i've followed him for a while as well. i think the majority of what he has to say (in terms of criticism of israeli government behavior) is reasonable and in good faith, but he suffers from the same problem as the rest of y'all. he puts all the agency on Israel, and ignores or dismisses the role of "the other side" in all of this. you can't fix a problem when you only pay attention to half of the story.

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"the appalling wave of Islamophobic attacks against Zohran Mamdani during the last weeks of his victorious mayoral campaign, the short-sighted embrace of such bigotry by too many American Jews and Jewish institutions"

agreed. i see it my twitter feed too. the worst of it is in replies to big accounts from "people" who generally don't use their real name or face so I don't take it as seriously (although it is a real problem in that their toxicity whether authentic or manufactured pollutes the commons) but I do see "real people" with actual followings say stupid nonsense too.

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"the current iterations of anti-semitism roiling the right, religious tradition and progressive politics, changing your mind"

indeed

11/22/2025 12:29:12 PM

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"he suffers from the same problem as the rest of y'all. he puts all the agency on Israel, and ignores or dismisses the role of "the other side" in all of this. you can't fix a problem when you only pay attention to half of the story."

Who here actually does that? Maybe only 0EP.

11/22/2025 12:56:49 PM

99% of the discourse here is israel bad. is anybody else here even willing to consider the possibility that "hey maybe the arabs made a mistake a long time ago" and have stubbornly refused to admit the mistake and have amplified that mistake 1,000,000x in the century since. no? we're just gonna stick with israel bad? oh ok.

[Edited on November 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM. Reason : if the hashemites and nashashibis hadn't lost the power struggle to the husseinis, we likely wouldn't be having this conversation]

11/22/2025 1:25:57 PM

Fine, I'll say it. Hamas was wrong to kidnap and murder and rape Jews.

11/22/2025 6:12:09 PM

^I whole-heartedly agree. But we've been through this. We don't need to preface all criticism of the State of Israel's actions with that obvious statement.

11/24/2025 10:19:38 AM

of course. denouncing an ethereal hamas is a relatively useless gesture. what i'd personally be more impressed by is people having the courage to say, or even to merely openly consider is

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"hey maybe the arabs made a mistake a long time ago" and have stubbornly refused to admit the mistake and have amplified that mistake 1,000,000x in the century since."

[Edited on November 24, 2025 at 11:42 AM. Reason : but some people can't do that bc their ideology and social group places arabs and muslims in the perma-oppressed category and therefore can do no wrong and even if what they do is wrong it's not their fault they had no choice and maybe it's actually legitimate and necessary. so they stubbornly refuse to admit their mistake and have amplified that mistake 1,000x in the years since]

11/24/2025 11:42:23 AM

you've got it all figured out man

11/24/2025 12:26:51 PM

^^
Sounds kind of like a potentially durable excuse for anything the state of Israel ever does.

Or we could all try considering actions in their current context instead of in the context of historical grievances by previous generations.

Is it much different from taking the stance that modern-day black folks have carte blanche to kill whitey as their historical oppressors and implementors of systemic racism?

It's not that I'm disinterested in history, but rather it's not so personally relevant to me as to invest tens of hours of my time into learning about many hundreds of years of conflict that I don't feel is particularly relevant what is objectively right or ethical in the current day.

11/24/2025 12:31:10 PM

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"a potentially durable excuse for anything the state of Israel ever does"

certainly can and has been. that's not what i'm doing.

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"considering actions in their current context instead of in the context of historical grievances by previous generations"

the current context is the same as the historical context. religion drives much of this then, and it drives much of it now too. it certainly does for hamas. and unfortunately it increasingly does for israelis (although something like half of israeli jews are still pretty secular and are culturally jewish rather than religious. among palestinians religion permeates to a much, much higher degree - hence the difficulty over the decades of reaching a settlement with israel as it would mean "abandoning" their religious convictions)

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"it's not so personally relevant to me as to invest tens of hours of my time"

understandable. that was me for most of my life too. but people do seem to be willing to spend 10 minutes at a time, a few times a week consuming and reposting articles that tell a distorted version of a history they never took the time to properly learn about. and the net effect of that is damaging to everybody involved.

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"what is objectively right or ethical in the current day"

i'm happy to ponder and debate what is the objectively moral way for a nation to wage war against a neighbor that continually attacks them, spends decades preparing for war in an urban environment where they intentionally hide behind their own citizens in order to gain tactical and psychological advantage. i've yet to hear anybody propose what israel should do, what THEY would do if they were in the same position. i guess just lay down and die would be the easiest way to avoid any potential moral transgressions. that is the psychic duty of the Jew after all, isn't it. to fulfill Leviticus 16:22 on behalf of mankind

11/24/2025 1:20:21 PM

Or maybe not block or blow up international aid convoys distributing food to civilians to try to prevent starvation.

11/24/2025 2:29:58 PM

blocking unauthorized aid attempts i can see being reasonable. after all there was a reason Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza

September 12, 2005 - Israel unilaterally disengages from Gaza
January 25, 2006 - Hamas wins elections
January 30, 2006 - US, Russia, UN, EU issues statement expecting Hamas' "commitment to the principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the 2003 Road Map for Peace." Hamas refuses
summer 2006 - rocket attacks pick up
2007 - rocket attacks
June 2007 - Hamas seizes Gaza
January 2008 - Israel and Egypt seal Gaza borders

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"or blow up international aid convoys"

agreed

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"The IDF identified two of its soldiers who it said were responsible for the killings, and whom it fired."

11/24/2025 3:40:26 PM