Peter Beinart says calling Hamas terrorists is ‘racist’

Explaining his position, Beinart said: “I think Hamas committed war crimes. Hamas’ history of targeting civilians is immoral and is a violation of international law, and I oppose it with all of my being.”

However, Beinart, who is an editor-at-large at Jewish Currents and a contributing columnist for The New York Times, went on to explain he was uncomfortable with the “terrorism” label because it was generally applied to exclusively Palestinians or Muslims despite the fact that he has “seen so many Palestinians who have experienced terror”.

Lax was quick to challenge Beinart, insisting, “I’m not letting you get away with this. No way!

Beinart then continued to say “if I have to call Hamas’ acts ‘terrorism,’ then I have to call Israel’s military response in the Gaza strip ‘terrorism’ too”.

Beinart stood firm in his belief that the term “terrorism” had become too “racially loaded”, however.

He said her preferred more neutral language to describe the actions of Hamas, who are responsible for the brutal murders of over 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of around 250 hostages during the October 7 attack.

Beinart’s views on the conflict have sparked considerable debate in recent years, particularly following the release of his latest book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, in January 2025.

In the book, Beinart argues that “Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation [of the population of Gaza].” The book further critiques the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians, which Beinart describes as fundamentally oppressive.

Earlier this year, speaking with The Guardian, Beinart claimed that American Jews who support Israel back “a state that is fundamentally unequal and fundamentally oppressive when it comes to Palestinians.”

He also stated that Zionism is, in part, “a rebellion against Judaism,” reflecting his growing critique of the movement that led to the creation of the Israeli state.

Beinart’s positions have drawn sharp criticism from within the Jewish community. Last week, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis publicly criticised a piece in The Guardian by Beinart which suggested that Jews should feel guilt over the ongoing violence in Gaza.

In the piece, titled “As Jews celebrate Purim, let us end the slaughter in Gaza committed in our name,” Beinart controversially claimed that the Purim festival, traditionally a celebration of Jewish survival, could be viewed as an example of “the evil that Jews commit”.

In response to his fiery debate with Lax Beinart said: “As I said to Jeffrey, and say at length in my book, I abhor any targeting of civilians. I’m glad the ICC is prosecuting Hamas leaders for war crimes. If terrorism means purposefully targeting civilians for violence, then Hamas and other Palestinian factions committed terrorism on October 7.

"Indeed, as I told Jeffrey, Hamas committed an act of terrorism by targeting the bus filled with Israeli civilians that killed a college friend of mine in the 1990s. But in establishment Jewish, and American, discourse the term ‘terrorism’ is not applied equally.

"It is far more often applied to Palestinian violence that targets civilians than Israeli, or for that matter American, violence. When Israel targets 19 villages in Masafer Yatta for demolition—villages populated by civilians who can’t get building permits because they are non-citizens under military law, that is also violence targeting civilians, and thus terrorism.”