When I got a clear view, I immediately stated the case clearly, both here and to my Jewish friend:
Israel's actions in Gaza were the defining issue of our time.
My friend mocked me. "TDIOT". It was clever, so close to IDIOT.
I beseeched him to see if he had eyes. I warned him. Future generations will ask, "What did you do during the war, daddy?" There was some little danger to American Jewry for their willful blindness. I soothed him. I did not think that it would amount to anything in the long run.
He was outraged when a close relative, in a teaching position, became the subject of verbal harassment, her students writing to the administration, criticizing it for not issuing a "trigger warning" when an Israeli scholar spoke to the class.
Fatigued at that moment, I responded callously. He exploded. A brief rupture ensued until I apologized unreservedly.
It became the defining issue in our friendship of thirty years. Now, anything touching on Israel is a third rail that we cannot touch without fatality.
"There are moments when a community must decide what it stands for."
Each of us has an individual duty to speak, no matter how puny our voice, on the defining issue of our time.
"We cannot remain silent"
