Welcome to The Beinart Notebook

A digest of recent writing and commentary by Peter

Welcome to my newfangled newsletter.

I’ve had a newsletter for a while (who doesn’t?), in which I send out my articles. But it’s been dry and formulaic. Now I’m going to try to make it something someone who isn’t related to me might actually want to read.

So in addition to sending out the pieces I write, I’m going to offer quick thoughts on subjects that interest me: The rise and fall of American civilization, the rise and fall of The New England Patriots, the rise and fall of the kipper breakfast, whatever. There’s also going to be a weekly conversation feature.

Assuming the United States hasn’t dissolved into civil war by then, we’re going to start with an online chat this Friday from 10-11 AM EST. An email invite to join the chat will go out on Friday morning. Join if you have a thought you’d like to bounce around, or if I’ve made some fallacious argument you’d like to disabuse me of. Or if you—like me—dream of the return of the kipper.

Anyone who hasn’t called me a kapo in the last month is cordially invited.

I’m going to add exclusive content for paid subscribers at some point too.

By the way, I have some news to report. After many happy years at the Atlantic, I’ve moved to The New York Times, where I’ll be writing a monthly column for the op-ed page.

One thing I want to do in that column is to write about the United States in the way Americans might write about the United States if it were a foreign country. For instance, in other countries, when aspiring dictators try to steal elections, the party having the election stolen from it often appeals to the United Nations and other international bodies. In places like Belarus and Tanzania, that’s what Americans encourage the victims of election fraud to do.

But when our own aspiring dictator tries to steal an election, Democrats can’t imagine doing the same thing: Taking our government to the UN. It just seems like the kind of thing Americans don’t do.

Turns out that’s wrong. Black Americans—the people most accustomed to being on the short end of stolen elections—have been appealing to the UN for a long time.

W.E.B Dubois did it. So did Paul Robeson, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. I started thinking about that history after listening to this great interview that The Intercept did with Robeson’s biographer, Professor Gerald Horne.

Then, aided by several dozen rice crackers, I wrote my first Times column about why—if Trump tries to steal the election—Democrats should follow in Robeson’s footsteps and appeal to the UN to investigate the threat to democracy in the US.

While researching the column I discovered that the international monitors who observe US elections regularly publish scathing reports about the ways our democracy isn’t all that democracy.

By the way, did you know that when international observers ventured into Texas in 2012 the state’s attorney general (now governor) threatened to arrest them? (No, but you’re not surprised).

My second column came out last week and it’s about how jihadist terrorism disappeared as an issue between 2016 and now. That’s bad for Donald Trump because Republicans generally do better when Americans fear foreign governments. Unfortunately for Trump, the government Americans fear most today is our own.

I also wrote a piece last week for Jewish Currents about how Israel’s new peace deals rely on, and exacerbate, repression in the countries Israel is making peace with. The more you look into the relationship between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the more it looks like Israel is protecting those Persian Gulf kingdoms as much from their own people as from Iran.

Jews and Muslims are working together to build better dictatorships. It’s an ecumenical axis of authoritarianism! Which reminds me of a hilariously depressing story I once read about how Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders in Jerusalem had put aside their differences to oppose a gay pride march. Which reminds me of the great Woody Allen line: “I won two weeks at interfaith camp. Where I was sadistically beaten by boys of all races and creeds.”

OK, I’m rambling. (Though, seriously, if you’ve never heard Woody Allen’s 1965 standup sketch, about the Moose, do yourself a favor. We all need some comic relief these days).

I’m also attaching my last three pieces in the Atlantic. The first was about the unique university town environments that enabled Kamala Harris and Barack Obama (and also, kind of, me—not that I’m claiming to be in their league) to be born, and why America’s new immigration policies imperil those ecosystems.

The second is about the way the electoral college makes it harder for politicians to focus on climate change. Who cares if California burns since Biden already has it locked up!

The third is about why Trump’s supporters don’t think he’s corrupt. (Answer: Because the “corruption” that bothers them most isn’t legal but cultural and racial).

I also took part in this panel hosted by the Arab Center about Israel-Palestine and the 2020 elections. Scroll down to the bottom for my session. (And look at Yousef Munayyer’s face when I say there are “many, many, many, many, many Jared Kushners coming.” That’s about an hour and 41 minutes in).

I also did this panel on Israel, Jews and the US elections sponsored by Hebrew University.

OK, that’s it. Tell your friends about the newsletter. Tell me on Friday about your favorite Woody Allen sketch or Paul Robeson song (I like this one)—or about the latter’s problematic affection for Joseph Stalin and the former’s problematic affection for, well, other things.

And watch out for the email with details about our Q and A on Friday, assuming we still have a country by then.

One last thing. When I come across things I like I’m going to recommend them, even if they are apropos of nothing.

So, apropos of nothing, if you’re interested in Jews and Palestinians, read this wild interview that Ari Shavit did in 2000 with Edward Said (if you can get through the paywall).

I’ve reprinted Said’s last answer of the interview below. I found it mind-blowing.

Shavit: You sound very Jewish.

Said: Of course. I'm the last Jewish intellectual. You don't know anyone else. All your other Jewish intellectuals are now suburban squires. From Amos Oz to all these people here in America. So I'm the last one. The only true follower of Adorno. Let me put it this way: I’m a Jewish-Palestinian.