I wrote this book because of my grandmother, who made me a Zionist. And because of Khaled Jaber, who could have been my son. - Peter Beinart

you can’t defeat an insurgency unless you address the core political grievances. This is the fundamental flaw behind Israel’s strategy.

My life has been very different from my grandmother's. But I have seen enough to understand how she feels. When I was thirteen, I watched footage of thousands of emaciated Ethiopian Jews, isolated from the rest of their people since the days when the First Temple stood, trekking through the Sahara to reach the planes that the Jewish state had sent to take them home. When I was fourteen, I saw a squat, bald Russian named Anatoly Sharansky-fresh from eight years in a Soviet jail-raise his hands in triumph as he descended the steps at Ben-Gurion Airport. In those soul-stirring scenes, I saw my grandmother's Zionism-the Zionism of refuge-play out before my eyes. It became my Zionism, too. Like her, I sleep better knowing that the world contains a Jewish state. But not any Jewish state.

if we find what Hamas did on October 7th despicable, as I did, it is incumbent on us to support Palestinians who are fighting for their freedom in an ethical way. And when you shut that down, as the United States has done again and again — you shut down Palestinian efforts at the U.N., you shut down Palestinians’ efforts at the International Criminal Court, you criminalize Boycott, Divestment and Sanction, even though these are nonviolent efforts in the language of human rights and international law — you are actually empowering forces like Hamas that will resist in these immoral ways. We have to create paths for Palestinians to fight for freedom ethically, and we have done the opposite.