By Dave Kaplan, , Seattle
Richard Silverstein writes: “Israel listens when the Diaspora makes its views known. If local Jewish groups don’t, you can’t blame the outside world when it decides it has had enough.” That line alone struck me as the crux of why some of these crazy Seattle liberals (a group which I proudly identify myself with) fight so hard against Israel’s occupation to the detriment of worse ills going on in the world. American Jews’ same old tactics to stop this never-ending violence between Israel and Palestine continue to not work, but we continue to do the same old thing. Then we keep wondering why we’re stuck and why things keep getting worse, while the talking heads on both sides continue to shout into the wind.
Some well-intentioned people have therefore stepped into the void that we ourselves have left open, and now we’re complaining about it. However ridiculous or divisive or wrongheaded I-97 is, we only have ourselves to blame.