Is a Jewish Democracy a Contradiction in Terms?

Is a Jewish Democracy a Contradiction in Terms?

From The Beinart Notebook by Peter Beinart

June 10, 2026 · 12 min

About this episode

Peter Beinart interviews Dan Shapiro about differing views on the Israel-Palestine conflict and related political issues.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.com Dan Shapiro served as ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration. He’s currently Distinguished Fellow at the Scrowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council. Shapiro and I hold very different views about what needs to happen in Israel-Palestine, so I invited him to discuss them. Topics include: Why there has been no two-state solution Should the US have conditioned aid on an end to settlement growth? Does Israel practice apartheid? Why should a Palestinian state be demilitarized but not Israel? Why should Hamas be excluded from Palestinians elections but Ben Gvir be allowed to run in Israeli ones? How power affects what is considered realistic and fair

People in this episode

Host: Peter Beinart

Guest: Dan Shapiro

Topics covered

  • Israel-Palestine conflict
  • two-state solution
  • US foreign policy
  • settlement growth
  • demilitarization
  • elections
  • apartheid

Keywords

  • Jewish democracy
  • two-state solution
  • settlements
  • apartheid
  • Hamas
  • Ben Gvir
  • demilitarization
  • US aid

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Obama administration, Atlantic Council

Places: Israel, Palestine

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