Calling Out What's Wrong Isn't Anti-Israel. It's Pro-Israel.
Silence won't secure Israel's future. Honesty might.
Last week, I argued that Israel’s cratering support in the US and globally isn’t simply the fault of one man: Bibi Netanyahu. While he bears significant responsibility, Israel’s current predicament stems from policies and actions that have unfolded over decades.
If I’m right, then an election in October and a change in prime minister won’t solve the problem. Something more fundamental is required: a change in direction.
While Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and their allies are shaping Israel into something unrecognizable to many long-time supporters, there remains a real opportunity to choose a different path – one that leads to a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people living in peace with its neighbors and ensuring freedom, dignity and prosperity for Palestinians in a state of their own.
In elections this fall, Israelis will face a stark choice: continue down a path toward being a kind of “super Sparta,” condemned to live forever by the sword, or move toward a future that brings regional acceptance and normalization.
When we at J Street focus on what’s going wrong on Israel’s current path, we do it because the stakes are literally existential. We see the potential loss of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
Still, I know that this focus leads many – sometimes critics, sometimes people genuinely wrestling with whether they should engage with us – to ask: If you’re truly pro-Israel, why spend so much time criticizing what Israel is doing? Why not highlight what’s good?
It’s a fair question. But it rests on a misunderstanding of what it means to support a country you care deeply about.
Being pro-Israel can’t mean going easy on policies that endanger its future. It means confronting them – even, and especially, when doing so is uncomfortable.
And it means standing with Israelis who are doing exactly that – often at great personal pain and cost.
One of the clearest examples of that kind of leadership comes from Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), an organization made up of many of the most senior figures ever to serve in Israel’s defense, intelligence and diplomatic corps.
These are people who have devoted their lives to defending the state. They understand, better than almost anyone, the cost of weakness and the necessity of strength.
And, in recent weeks, they have issued a stark warning about a growing threat from within.
In a letter to the head of the IDF’s Central Command, they wrote that settler violence in the West Bank has become “a daily, permanent, and terrifying phenomenon,” not the work of a few fringe actors but “an organized system” aimed at driving Palestinians from their land.
Even more striking is their warning about the consequences. Settler violence, they write, is not just a moral failure – it is a strategic one. It “radicalize[s] Palestinians… risks igniting a broader conflict, and causes enormous damage to the State of Israel” internationally and within the Jewish diaspora.
In a follow-up letter, they underscored that allowing such violence to continue is “a blow to state security” that diverts forces and risks opening another front.
This is not the language of Israel’s adversaries. It is the language of some of its most seasoned defenders.
And it is, in my view, the very definition of patriotism.
These are individuals who built the institutions now under strain – and are now willing to say publicly: this is wrong, this is dangerous, and it must change.
These are also the Israelis who organized an alternative Independence Day celebration this week, warning that the country has been “hijacked.”
Two former leaders of the nation’s military - yes, former Chiefs of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - wrote in an op-ed inviting fellow citizens to join them that the country’s leaders:
“… are trampling over the values by which this country has been founded: equality, liberty and justice.”
That is what it looks like to fight for Israel – not just with weapons, but with values.
It is also a reminder that criticism and love of country are not opposites. Often, they are inseparable.
There is another Israel I want people to see as well.
This week, in Tel Aviv, Israelis and Palestinians gathered for a joint Memorial Day ceremony – bringing together those who have lost loved ones in the conflict to mourn and to affirm a shared commitment to a different future.
Writing in Haaretz, Linda Dayan captured the ceremony’s spirit:
“This is the Israel I love. This is the Israel I choose each day to stand in, to make my home, to work toward improving.”
That line captures, in a very human way, what being pro-Israel actually means for those of us loudly opposing where it is heading.
The Israel of Commanders for Israel’s Security – the Israel willing to confront moral failure because it understands the stakes. And the Israel of the joint Memorial Day ceremony – the Israel that insists on shared humanity even amid grief and loss.
That is the Israel I advocate for.
That is the Israel J Street stands for.
Not an Israel that accepts endless conflict and domination as its destiny, but one that believes its future lies in peace. Not an Israel that turns away from hard truths, but one that faces them with courage. Not an Israel defined only by power, but one guided by the values at the heart of our Jewish identity.
If Israel is to regain its standing in the world – if it is to maintain the support of even a fraction of Jewish America under age 35 – that is the Israel we have to fight for.
And fighting for that Israel – by telling the truth about the one we see today – is what being pro-Israel demands.
One more obviously reasonable article depicting the other opinion, the opinion of peace and fairness and civility, not just simple brutality and bestiality, I'm copying the article that I received by email and forwarding it to all our readership for better understanding of what's happening and possibly what could be done in this Levantine surroundings. PS, I must clarify that I'm not a member of this group or organization, and don't have any contact with them, more so no official authorization to transmit any of their opinions or writings, except what I personally find of interest as explained above.
As always, my many thanks to all.
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