Legitimate Concern

I once fired a client who was abusing me. A few of my friends knew what was up and I ran the break-up email by one on them after I had sent it. He's a writer, a client and a friend.

In it I was entirely positive and not critical of the client at all. I thanked her for all the work they'd given me and so on. I'm not sure but my friend might have been surprised.

Surprised that I didn't point out how the client had abused me. Or even hint at it. No criticism at all. I would only have made myself small by doing that, I said. Let it be known I'm not always, or maybe even usually, good at this interpersonal stuff. 

Anyway, then I said I saved that for my friends, which is true. With your friends you can average it out and they know it all already anyway. It's what they're for, as they say.

This is the way it is with Israel and American Jews and many of the criticisms of Israel brought up since the horror of the Hamas attack. I'm sure not all of it but most of the criticism I've seen, at least from the left, had been this, coming from family.

Coming from such committed friends it should be allowed. Not all of the criticism is this, of course, but I think most of it is and accusing those people of being antisemitic is wrong.

Wrong and hurtful and alienating and counterproductive. I was against America attacking Iraq after 9/11. I was against going into Afghanistan. I thought it unwise.

I was very much against the Waco intervention against that religious nut in the Clinton years. I'm skeptical of the efficacy of force. And I think it breeds more force and violence. 

So, there. If some people think Netanyahu's reaction and going into Gaza was unwise and playing into the hands of a bunch of nutcases I think it's a legitimate concern. 

And it doesn't mean they're anti-anybody.