As a Jew, it’s not easy to speak out critically of Israel. Otherwise “liberal-minded” fellow Jews often reveal an inflexible nationalist bent as soon as the topic of Eretz Yisrael arises.

To speak ill of Israel’s many wars or its treatment of Palestinians or to suggest that forging a new, better relationship with Iran is long overdue is to invite scornful dismissal or blistering criticism, not only from strangers, but also from one’s dearest friends and family.

Criticizing Israeli policies in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, the settlements — whatever — quickly yields the label “self-hating Jew.” I’ve heard this myself, but I assure you, I do not hate myself, I do not hate Jews, nor do I hate Israel. What I do hate are government policies that are tantamount to apartheid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is mobbed by lawmakers at his recent address to the U.S. Congress.

Israel Government Press Office

I also hate watching human rights violations glossed over, excused or simply ignored by those who enable and encourage what are, by any reasonable measure, egregious abuses of people being treated no better than caged animals. I hate seeing what Israel did to the people of Gaza in the summer of 2014, where a brutal 50-day war killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them civilians, one-third of whom were children, and being told it was simply “self defense.”

So to see Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu speak before both houses of Congress and watch the gushing reaction and read the flurry of “I Stand With Israel” tweets is not only disheartening, it’s perplexing.

When Netanyahu dredges up the tired language of fear, cynically warning of goons, nazis and murderous regimes, has no one a critical ear? When Netanyahu claims to be “an emissary for the entire Jewish people,” the least I can do is stand up and say “No, you do not speak for me and you have no ground on which to stand and lecture about human rights or the dangers of nuclear weapons.”

When Netanyahu recites his dark script casting the dangers of a hypothetically nuclear armed Iran (a country which, unlike Israel, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, and whose highest official has publicly issued a religious edict [fatwa] against the possession of nuclear weapons), the irony is ripe.

Has Congress taken a collective vow of silence, swearing to ignore the fact that Israel has had its own nuclear weapons for decades? Is no one in Congress willing to even utter the words “Israeli nukes?”  If someone powerful in your own family repeatedly abused another person beneath the same roof, wouldn’t you speak up?

Instead most in Congress promise to stand with Israel “no matter what.” No matter how many children are arrested, no matter how many homes are demolished, no matter how times Israel thumbs its nose at United Nations resolutions, standing alone but for its enabler, the United States, independent judgment and critical thinking are all but absent.

When Netanyahu tells Congress, “If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country,” is Congress so deaf to the irony of his statement that it can do nothing but erupt into another round of thunderous applause? Is it a normal country that hems 1.8 million people into a twelve by fifty-some-kilometer strip of land and then squeezes them even tighter as it unleashes a massive bombing campaign? Is it a normal country that bulldozes houses and regularly arrests children?

Regrettably, these sordid details are rarely mentioned in the halls of Congress. To bring this up in polite conversation is, after all, bad form.

Every time Israel embarks on another lopsided war (what Netanyahu so antiseptically calls “an operation”), it not only disproportionately kills civilians, but further endangers Israel itself. For every new war turns more people around the world against Israel. Each new bloody “operation” gives those inclined to hate one more reason to be anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic.

To remain silent, no matter how much blood and rubble, for me anyway, is to betray my conscience and to deny humanity to all who are victimized by Israeli policies —be they Muslim, Jew or other.

Calling Israel out on policies that are destructive to its neighbors, damaging to itself and potentially harmful to the United States is the very least Congress could do, not fawning over Israel’s prime minister as he blows smoke and manipulates emotions. Netanyahu is a masterful speaker, projecting an image of strength and righteousness, but behind his ‘Iron Dome’ persona, Israel is weakened in the long-term. As a Jew, standing up and speaking out against this hypocrisy may not win any popularity contests, but I couldn’t stand it any other way.