Letter: Open up the debate on Israel

Columnist Cathy Young pretends to discuss a scholarly conference while deploying the old strategy of suggesting that anyone who questions Israeli policy is an anti-Semite ["American left has turned away from Israel," Opinion, May 11].

As is true with other labels, this is a name that once hurled cannot be removed, forever staining reputations. Name-calling of this sort is just another form of bullying.

Young is guilty of intellectual and moral laziness, relying on tropes instead of giving a reasoned response to the questions being asked by progressives. Would she call American Jews anti-Semites when they question the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government?

It should be no surprise that some American progressives do not find themselves in full agreement with Netanyahu's Likud Party. Newsday can certainly do better than to run such blatant propaganda.

The Rev. J. Gary Brinn,Sayville

Editor's note: The writer is the pastor of the Sayville Congregational United Church of Christ.