In light of the intense geopolitical climate in the Middle East and around the world, American Jews across the political spectrum are likely to agree that Israel stands at a crossroads. Israel’s policy choices both at home and abroad inevitably carry a significance likely to be felt for decades to come, and therefore must be undertaken with utmost caution and sensitivity.
To this end, Gary Rosenblatt (“Bettering Israel Without Battering Israel,” Between The Lines, Feb. 17) and Rebecca Neuwirth (“We Need More ‘Dirty Laundry’ Conversations About Israel,” Opinion, Jan. 27) should both be commended for their recent columns in The Jewish Week urging Israel not to hide its “dirty laundry” any longer.
Weighty policy decisions require consensus around common-sense ideas, and the only way for Israel to achieve such consensus is to own up to its imperfections and develop a thick enough skin so that it need not automatically brand every critical voice as an anti-Israel one.
At the same time, Israel must also ensure that this moment of self-reflection includes a commitment to seeing the Arab-Israeli conflict with fresh eyes, so that it can ultimately understand how its Palestinian policy, too, is but another bag of dirty laundry that needs to be aired en route to a fuller, revivified Israeli democracy.
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