Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza

A Reckoning

By: Peter Beinart

Narrated by: Peter Beinart

A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time

In Peter Beinart’s view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew?

Beinart imagines an alternate narrative, which would draw on other nations’ efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish tradition. A story in which Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. One that recognizes the danger of venerating states at the expense of human life.

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a provocative argument that will expand and inform one of the defining conversations of our time. It is a book that only Peter Beinart could write: a passionate yet measured work that brings together his personal experience, his commanding grasp of history, his keen understanding of political and moral dilemmas, and a clear vision for the future.

©2025 Peter Beinart (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Beinart issues an impassioned critique of the American Jewish community’s reaction to the war in Gaza. . . . Urgent and thought-provoking, this is sure to spark debate.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Invaluable. . . . Beinart’s cogent and caring analysis guides readers toward moral clarity and a sharper understanding of the crisis and its profoundly devastating consequences.”
—Booklist

"This timely book constitutes a reckoning with the vast gulf between the Jewish tradition that Beinart cherishes and what has replaced it in the practice of the state of Israel, and of those who have come to worship that state. It is urgently needed.”
—Rashid Khalidi, New York Times bestselling author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine

Zionism's damage to Israel and world Jewry

With a passionate and intensely personal knowledge of Judaism and it's sacred texts, Professor Beinart shines a bright light on the damage that the dead-end European ideology of Zionist supremacy is wreaking on the dream of a Jewish homeland, while simultaneously offering an uncommonly realistic portrait of Palestinian lives under the 75-year stranglehold of occupation and Palestinians innately human desire to live in peace and equality under the rule of law of both man and God.

Short and Powerful

This is a very precise but powerful depiction of the struggle in Palestine. Hopefully, the world will listen.

Brilliant & Edifying

“Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning” is spiritually uplifting, tough, morally sensitive, necessary, timely and a courageous look at the historical and moral blindness that has led to this tragic nadir in the life of the Jewish people and catastrophe for the Palestinians. Despite the dark period it addresses it is ultimately a guide for correction & redemption.

you owe it to your ancestors, descendants, and all Palestinians to engage with the information herein

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

If you have yet to lose your illusions and come out against the Jewish Supremacist State, you owe it to your ancestors, descendants, and all Palestinians to engage with the information in this book

do not believe one could take all of this in and remain unconvinced we must stand up to Zionism, Zionists, and their enablers. If you are so confident the issue is “too complicated,” the danger to Jewish lives too great, or claims to violent dominion (be they divine, legal, ethical, or historical), a few hours and dollars should not pose a threat to your worldview.

The truth

This remarkable, concise, deeply informative description of a current catastrophe is a brave and admirable endeavor to foster understanding and promote a path toward a peaceful solution that is now completely obscured by the brutality of the situation. The message can be generalized readily toward the elusive goal of peace on earth. I am sadly pessimistic about its probable limited short term impact, but I am hoping for the best, that baby steps which will eventually turn the tide.

Manipula la historia

Verdades a medias, muy tendencioso… manipula datos … no recomiendo este libro …Hay mucho mejores y mas ciertos . Es un libro deshonesto