Thanks for your comment, Matthew.

Simply put, I don't think that Israel is the real reason for the attacks on Jews. Not only have Jews been subjected to horrific violence everywhere we've lived before, during and after the creation of Israel, but the situation today is even worse for Jews in countries that support Israel far less than the US does (e.g. every European country).

By the same token, I'm not entirely sure Israel is the real reason for progressive silence. In the letter, I address progressives as though it is the real reason, because that's what I keep hearing from them. But I think the real reason for progressive silence is antisemitism. (No, I'm not saying they're all evil antisemites; like all bigotries, antisemitism works at a societal level through people who are basically decent.)

You already mentioned that most American Jews don't support settlements and other right-wing Israeli policies; the people attacking people and synagogues seem not to be carefully monitoring this polling.

For these reasons, I think any attempt by American Jews to distance themselves from Israel (which they're perfectly entitled to do for their own moral/ethical reasons) would not succeed in reducing anti-Jewish violence or the progressive silence surrounding it.