1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

Our voices as your constituents don’t seem to be relevant to you. Maybe this Israeli man whose mother was killed on October 7th is importing enough to listen to? (https://www.democracynow.org/2024/9/3/israel_strike#transcript) Yonatan Zeigen is an Israeli peace activist, trained mediator and social worker, son of the renowned Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, who was killed on October 7th during the Hamas attack on her kibbutz, Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived. He has said his mother had a plan for peace for Israel and the Palestinians before she was killed. He was recently on “Democracy Now!” speaking about the scene of the hundreds of thousands of Israelis, a number of them family members of hostages still in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu agree to a ceasefire deal. “Well, being on the streets with so many people and with that energy is very powerful, on the one hand. On the other, it’s filled with despair, because you know that our politicians won’t listen to anything, because they’re driven out of self-interest. So, in that sense, you feel — you feel the energy, you feel the solidarity, but also the hopelessness.” He was asked if the latest deaths of the six hostages were preventable, and if he sees that the latest protests are some sort of a turning point in Israel. “All of the deaths were preventable. October 7th was preventable, as well. If we would have pursued peace years ago, if we would seek partners, Palestinian partners, instead of strengthening fundamentalists, if we would have not strengthened our own fundamentalists and put them in government, then October 7th wouldn’t have happened to begin with. And since then, if we wouldn’t have gone into this atrocious war, and if we would — sought diplomacy and the help of the international community and go to the PA and Saudi Arabia and the United States and asked, this is — “We’re willing to do 1, 2, 3 in order to create a new reality here, and we ask for Hamas to be driven out,” then we would have gotten that. And all of the deaths would have been prevented, and the hostages would have been brought home. Is it a turning point? One should hope. But, you know, people relate — you know, they anchor themselves in personal stories. And we woke up on Sunday to a very harsh and heartbreaking story of the six hostages being killed. Will it fuel a relentless protest that will be strong enough to bring a government down or to make it change their policy? I’m not sure.” If you won’t listen to your constituents and you won’t listen to Palestinians and you won’t listen to Israelis, then why are you holding office? Do what is right: enact an arms embargo on Israel now.