Supremacy over Democracy: The Shame of the American Jewish Establishment

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor interviews FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart about Peter's recent Jewish Currents essay, "The Shame of the American Jewish Establishment," which offers a political and historical look at American Jewish institutions, known broadly as the American Jewish establishment. They discuss Peter's analysis of the trajectory of American Jewish institutions & their leadership, which in the mid-20th century saw American Jewish wellbeing as tied to the growth and expansion of American liberal democracy and thus supported civil rights, women's rights, and LGBT+ rights, and where they are now, which is abandoning the fight for American democracy in favor of support for the state of Israel. Peter posits that if American Jewish institutions and the people who work in them once navigated a dichotomy in which they supported legal equality in the United States but Jewish supremacy in Israel/Palestine, that contradiction has been solved: in the wake of Israel's assault on Gaza and Trump's 2024 return to power, these institutions and their leadership prioritize support for Israel over any other values or needs, including the dangerous growth of Christian nationalism, election denial, and open racism. Ahmed & Peter also discuss why they think it is important to speak with people with whom they hold profound disagreements - such as Curt Mills and Tucker Carlson - and why it's both necessary and possible to challenge them on the racism and other hate they explicitly or implicitly platform. Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and an MSNOW Political Commentator. His newest book (published 2025) is Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. He publishes regularly on https://peterbeinart.substack.com/. Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.