Israel Supporters Must Now Show Their True Colors

I never thought I'd see the day when showing support for Israel in my mostly Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood would feel like an act of defiance.
But when I tied blue and white ribbons to the antenna of my car today, I briefly worried that I might end up with a broken window, or worse. Just yesterday I saw a kid nearly roughed up by passionate opponents of Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout because he dared display a pro-disengagement sign at their rally.
I tied the ribbons to my car in response to numerous orange ribbons that have popped up on vehicles in recent weeks. Orange is the color chosen by Gaza Jewish settlers and their supporters to show solidarity and protest.
Like any sane supporter of Israel I have strong concerns about whether the disengagement or pullout or evacuation or expulsion -- whatever you choose to call it -- will improve or harm the security of the Jewish state. It certainly feels like rewarding the perpetrators of thousands of bloody terror attacks, while punishing the law-abiding citizens who endured those attacks. It's also shrinking the borders or an already tiny country, while getting nothing tangible in return. At least the Sinai was traded for a piece of paper with Anwar Sadat's signature.
But it would be the definition of chutzpah for me, who has never lifted a finger in Israel's defense despite spending considerable time there in my army-age youth, to second guess a general who has fought every war since the country declared its independence, and shed his own blood on the battlefield. Plain and simple, if this is a catastrophic mistake, its one for Sharon and the people who elected him to make.
Opponents of the Gaza pullout argue that Israel belongs to all the Jewish people, and its leaders must heed the concerns and dreams of those in the diaspora as well as those of their own electorate. But that rings hollow in a country with mandatory military service, where each citizen is required to physically back up the policies of the leaders they elect, and bear the costs of their mistakes. Non-Israelis do none of those things, no matter how much money we raise or trees we plant or summer vacations we spend there.
Jews and America and elsewhere who have stood fast against the pullout -- and polls show they are a minority -- are not wrong to express their grave reservations. But they are wrong to try to stifle those who stand by Israel's elected government. And they are wrong to presume that they can sit in Brooklyn or Teaneck or Baltimore or Toronto and tell Israeli soldiers what territory to fight and die for. Truly supporting Israel means backing all its citizens, not only the settlers but the leaders and soldiers, too, as they endure one of the most challenging ordeals in their history.
Whatever we think of the pullout, it's a done deal now. The orange ribbons have served their purpose. Israel is once again taking a massive chance for peace, as it did in the 90s when it trusted Yasir Arafat.
The way to show our hope that this time will turn out better is to display true, proud colors of Israel: Blue and white.