Peter Beinart grew up a committed Zionist and changed his mind. He now believes that Israel, as currently constituted, cannot be reconciled with the principle of equality under the law, and he has spent the last decade making that case publicly in The New York Times, Jewish Currents, and most recently in his book Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza. We dig into that, and a lot more. This is my third conversation in our ongoing series of debates on Israel-Palestine. I’ve talked to Dave Smith and Glenn Greenwald, both of whom come at the issue from a very different angle than Peter. What makes Peter’s perspective distinctive is that it comes from a place rooted in Jewish identity and Jewish tradition. He’s not hostile to Israel in the way that some of his fellow travelers are. He cares about it deeply, which is why I think his critique is worth engaging with seriously. We debate whether a potential Palestinian right of return would be comparable to Jewish immigration. I argue that the cases are fundamentally different, and that accepting the right of return as a universal principle would create chaos on a global scale. We get into whether a one-state solution would produce equality or civil war, and I push back on the South Africa analogy, which I think is superficially persuasive but falls apart under scrutiny. We also talk about jihadist ideology as an independent variable in the conflict, something I think the left consistently under-weights, and we debate whether Iran is a genuine existential threat to Israel or whether that framing is overblown. Strong disagreements on this topic have a way of turning ugly fast. This one didn’t, and I thank Peter for his willingness to engage. 0:00 Intro 1:35-Peter Beinart's Background and the Case for Equality 6:31-The Palestinian Right of Return 11:48-Israel's Law of Return and Immigration Policy 16:48-Who Started the 1948 War? 19:06-Should Any Country Preserve an Ethnic Majority? 45:01-The One State Solution and Risk of Civil War 48:34-The South Africa Analogy 57:36-What Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance Should the World Support? 1:02:31-Palestinian Nonviolence, BDS and International Pressure 1:05:43-Are There Arab Muslim Liberal Democracies? 1:23:48-Coleman's Engagement with Palestinian Voices 1:27:27-The Iran Threat and Is It Existential?