Inadequate Response

 Gary Rosenblatt’s column, “Did J Street Win The War By Losing The Battle? (May 9), concludes that “the least we can do from these shores is to continue to wrestle with each other.” That conclusion is inadequate.

Although it is not fashionable today to talk in these terms, possibly because of its extreme horror, Israel’s six million Jews and 1.6 million Arabs are in imminent danger of annihilation as Iran rapidly approaches nuclear breakout capability and while Hezbollah aims almost 100,000 rockets at Israel. Even in the Palestinian negotiations, the Arab world will seize upon any Israeli miscalculation to achieve its goal since 1947 of destroying the Jewish state.

Wrestling is not what’s needed. We don’t bear the risks and dangers. What’s needed is a sense of urgency, not displayed during the Holocaust, to do whatever we can to protect the Israeli people from hate-filled enemies sworn to their destruction. We must lobby Congress for increased Iran sanctions, support Israel’s right of self-defense, march for Israel, oppose BDS, and pursue the initiatives periodically adopted by AIPAC to complement the policies of each democratically elected government of Israel.

In times of danger, there is a moral responsibility of American Jews to row in the same direction. “Wrestling” among ourselves is not only inadequate and maybe self-indulgent, but also counterproductive.  Israel’s enemies will exploit our divisions, and our political leaders will receive mixed messages. We are in a real world, life-or-death situation. As Rabbi Davidson of Temple Emanu-El wrote in his Opinion essay (“Liminal Moments: Our Unity Is Threatened,” May 2), “Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is not some theoretical exercise; it is an existential necessity, no less for us than for those who fled Europe to build it 70 years ago.”

President of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) Fairfield, Conn.