My criticism of Israel was supported by Jews who want peace

I've cheerfully ignored such comments on my recent column as “I will never shop at your store because you support Hamas” and “Palestinians can't have an independent state because they refused one in 1948.” I was born that year, and I'm here to tell you the world has changed since then. But I must respond to the allegations by Jackson Pincus printed in his recent column.

First, my column wasn't antisemitic. It was anti-Zionist — like those Israelis I described who oppose the war and the illegal settlements. Many of the women who stand in Women in Black vigils calling for a ceasefire are Jews, as are many of the people who've thanked me for the column. They all reject the false equivalence Pincus embraces, that criticism of Israel's government equals antisemitism.

Israel's escalating inhumanity toward noncombatants has indeed prompted many comparisons to Nazi Germany. But not by me. I did not, and do not, say that. I accused some Israelis of cruelty, a verifiable fact. A blinkered focus on the evil of Hamas while refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing by Israel, misses the point: decades of Israeli abuse has created and continues to feeds terrorism.

Pincus denies that Israel wants control of Palestine. Yet Netanyahu adamantly opposes the creation of a Palestine state, while continuing to expand the illegal settlements. Every Jew I know believes that Palestine's independence is the only path to peace. If that's antisemitic, I know a lot of antisemitic Jews.

Alison Slow Loris, Bremerton

Editor's note: Mr. Slow Loris had a column published March 5. Kitsap Sun opinion page policy allows columns an opportunity to respond when another writer challenges an idea.