When I came of political age as a Colorado Democrat the generation of young leaders who inspired and mentored me were (1) (Dick Lamm) passing the nation’s first state law legalizing abortion (2) (Gary Hart) sitting on the US Senate Church Committee investigating, exposing and reforming the worst practices of the CIA (3) (Pat Schroeder) leading the way for women at the highest level of political leadership, serving on the House Armed Services Committee (4) (Tim Wirth) challenging and reforming Congress’s seniority system which had kept reactionary racist southern politicians in committee leadership positions. All four were vocal supporters of the US moral and strategic alliance with Israel.
This is one reason I’ve found the emergence in the current Colorado State legislature of a ‘junior squad’ of so-called progressive legislators, so destructive and indeed embarrassing for Colorado Democrats. This junior squad, Reps. Elisabeth Epps, Javier Mabrey, Lorena Garcia, Tim Hernandez lined up with those who took the opportunity of the horrific Hamas atrocities of October 7th to cynically become “Free Palestine” activists.
These four never set foot in a Palestinian rally before October 7th when they suddenly found it politically expedient, which is the height of hypocrisy. Yet sadly it fits the new performative style of this new generation who’ve found their way into the Colorado State legislature. Now as part of the performance they dawn Yassir Arafat style kaffiyehs and take selfies for social media standing on the floor of the House, they display miniature flags of Palestine on their legislative desks, disrupt legislative proceedings from the gallery while sitting among “Free Palestine” demonstrators, gather on the Capitol steps shouting “ceasefire now” which means leave Hamas murdering terrorists in control of Gaza and the 136 remaining civilian hostages - violently abducted at gunpoint from their homes on October 7th - in the hands of Hamas and Gaza civilians.
All this is now labeled progressive.I label it hate. There is absolutely nothing progressive about cheering or denying terrorist atrocities. There is nothing progressive about targeting/vandalizing Jewish-owned businesses as we’ve seen all over America by “Free Palestine” mobs, featuring awful chants extolling violence and the end of Israel. There’s nothing progressive about exploiting the worst day of indiscriminate slaughter of unarmed civilians in the Jewish people and Israel’s history since the Holocaust, to score political points by blaming Israel and demanding Israel stop it’s just war of self-defense. This performative politics is absolutely mindless and extremely insensitive to any Coloradan still reeling from the October 7th massacre trauma of Jews, Israelis and all who support a safe, secure State of Israel. It must be denounced, opposed and turned back.
After decades of political activism as a Colorado Democrat I relocated my home to Israel in 2019. Previously, after attending Hebrew University in Jerusalem as an exchange student through the University of Colorado, I became a political activist on behalf of the strong US -Israel relationship which has a long storied history, I’ve studied and written about it in many Israeli and American publications. I know about and have openly written about legitimate grievances of Arab inhabitants of Palestine before 1948 and since, my views are an open book.
Israel has not yet lived up to the vision of its founders. One reason I chose to move here at this stage of life is to participate in the unfinished work of perfecting Israel. The vision of Israel’s founders celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023, all year long we had the largest public protest movement in Israel’s history demanding democratic reform and rejecting right-wing efforts to gut the authority of Israel’s supreme court, as a small ideological minority wanted to pursue discrimination and practice dislocation of Palestinian West Bank communities. We had a great deal of success stopping the assault on the Supreme Court and Israel was on the verge of new elections to replace the current government.
Now we face a massively new, and much more dangerous challenge from a generation of Gaza Palestinians raised to be animals murdering, committing horrificly barbaric acts against terrorized unarmed civilians hiding in their homes sheltering family members. The October 7th attacks had absolutely nothing to do with freeing Palestine or redressing legitimate grievances. I can tell the difference between murdous indiscriminate slaughter and resisting oppression.
Colorado’s junior squad sudden identity with those disruptive, vandalizing, mask-wearing, aggressively screaming terror-supporting slogans is outrageous and must be denounced and opposed. I will do whatever I can to support efforts to defeat them for election this coming fall and urge others to join those efforts.
Colorado and Colorado Democrats need another generation of inspiring visionary leaders to emerge, and all who can must help.