About Peter Beinart

Peter Beinart is an American columnist, journalist, and political commentator. A former editor of The New Republic, he has also written for Time, and The New York Times among other periodicals. He is also the author of three books. You can follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/peterbeinart, and on Substack at: https://peterbeinart.substack.com

A Radical Pick for the National Security Council

On Wednesday, National-Security Adviser John Bolton chose Fred Fleitz—who for the last five years served as a senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy—to be the National Security Council’s executive secretary and chief of staff. What makes that choice extraordinary is that, for more than a decade, the Center for Security Policy (CSP) has been arguing that American Muslims who observe shariah, or Islamic law, don’t deserve the protections ...

2018-06-08T10:51:51-04:00By |

Trump’s and Bolton’s Instincts Form a Toxic Combination

Why did the Trump administration cancel its much-hyped nuclear summit with North Korea? And why the confusing semi-backtrack the following day, in which Trump embraced North Korea’s “warm and productive statement” regretting the cancellation, and left the door open to a meeting he’d ditched barely 24 hours before? The answer lies in the toxic interplay between Donald Trump’s instincts and John Bolton’s. Each man’s foreign-policy ...

2018-06-08T10:47:46-04:00By |

Israel’s Choice To Shoot Palestinians Should Horrify — But Not Surprise Us

The other day, a thoughtful acquaintance, who is to my right politically, asked me a question. He asked what I’d advise Israel to do when faced with thousands of Palestinians, some likely bent on violence, who are trying to storm the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from the rest of Israel. (I say “rest of Israel” because I believe Gaza still remains under Israeli occupation). ...

2018-05-18T10:11:23-04:00By |

‘All Is Shambles’: The Days After the Iran Deal

Read some of the most prominent critics of the Iran nuclear deal and you’ll notice something: They seem to be preparing their alibis in case Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from it proves a catastrophic mistake. Trump, wrote Bret Stephens on Tuesday in The New York Times, “was absolutely right” to leave the agreement, “assuming, that is, serious thought has been given to what comes next.” On Twitter, ...

2018-05-10T15:11:00-04:00By |

The Iran Deal and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism

Who, or what, is to blame for Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear agreement? There are lots of candidates: Trump’s assumption that any deal not negotiated by him is a rip-off, his obsession with undoing Barack Obama’s legacy, Israel and Saudi Arabia’s desire to prevent any rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. These all surely played a role. But underlying them is something more ...

2018-05-10T10:23:13-04:00By |

Iran Hawks Are the New Iraq Hawks

Last week, while watching Benjamin Netanyahu unveil secret information that supposedly proved that Iran is deceiving the world about its nuclear-weapons program, I had a flashback. It was to February 5, 2003, when then-Secretary of State Colin Powell unveiled secret information that supposedly proved that Iraq was deceiving the world about its nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs. Like Netanyahu’s, Powell’s presentation was dramatic. He informed the ...

2018-05-10T10:20:22-04:00By |

Abandoning Iran Deal, U.S. Joins Israel In Axis Of Escalation

After 9/11, a colleague turned to me and said, “We’re all Israelis now.” Listening to Donald Trump announce that the United States will brazenly violate its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal, I had a similar thought. In the outlooks of their governments, Israel and the United States are now one. Ideologically, it no longer makes sense to speak about “The West.” …

2018-05-10T10:09:43-04:00By |

Benjamin Netanyahu: TV Star

Benjamin Netanyahu’s breathless presentation on Monday about Iran’s nuclear program didn’t reveal anything particularly surprising about Iran’s nuclear program. Using a batch of stolen Iranian documents that detailed the program, the Israeli prime minister purportedly proved that Tehran pursued a nuclear-weapons program before 2003, and has been lying about it ever since. Which is what most experts already assumed. Even Fox News anchor Brit Hume acknowledged that the “Netanyahu ...

2018-05-10T10:15:32-04:00By |
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