It’s time to take a break from business as usual and address something more important than making money. Ahsan Nasar is running an insurgency campaign against a career politician in the House of Representatives, Virginia District 11.

The top issue in Ahsan’s campaign is an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. He is speaking truth to power. The killing of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, mostly women and children, must stop. I was pleased to meet with him yesterday. He has my complete support.

Predictably, career politicians have accused Ahsan of anti-semitism. Most of my Jewish friends see the matter differently. As a friend I have known and trusted for a quarter century explained:

Yes Bibi [as she calls “Binyamin Netanyahu”] undermined the stability of the country. He is guilty of treason as is Trump. He undermined the military just as Trump and GOP do to this day.

My friends are far from the only ones to feel this way. Jewish organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are calling attention to Palestinian suffering and pushing for a cease-fire.

Netanyahu’s policies and lack of planning are creating a long-range existential crisis for the nation of Israel. There was a worldwide wave of sympathy for Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 2023 Hamas attack. That has disappeared. A poll just a few weeks later showed a different trend: More people ages 18-29 sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis in the current conflict. The age gap is striking. Two thirds of those 65 or older believe it is “very important” for the U.S. to protect Israel. Only fourteen percent of 18- to 29-year-olds agree. A more recent Pew Research poll showed the gap is widening.

This trend is ominous. In the long run Israel cannot survive without friends.

Netanyahu’s excuse that he is only trying to destroy Hamas is phony. Israel has a right to self-defense, but there are two big problems with the way it is trying to defend itself:

— The disproportionate killings of innocent Palestinians, while not meeting the technical definition of “genocide,” nevertheless are war crimes and clear violations of customary international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch has a good explanation of the rules, written for non-lawyer audiences. Those wanting more detailed analysis can find it in Red Cross, and United Nations references, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual, the authoritative U.S. government statement of its law of armed conflict interpretations. The issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu is well justified.

— Netanyahu’s blunders and failure to realistically plan for the war’s aftermath will only make Israel’s enemies stronger in the long range. As respected analyst Josh Marshall (who, if it matters, is Jewish) has pointed out in his essay Tragedy and Folly:

The simple fact is that Netanyahu has waged an unimaginably destructive war with a massive loss of life and managed to accomplish much less than Israel could have if it’d had a clear strategy of what it was trying to do, or, specifically, who would rule Gaza after Hamas had been displaced.

Bottom Line: If your top priority is the long-range survival of Israel, Ahsan is your man.