I salute The Durango Herald on its recent editorial, “Our view: silencing Gaza’s journalists silences the world,” (Herald, Aug. 31). The Herald is right to speak up for the importance of protecting journalists around the globe, and it is particularly important to do so in a context in which even mild criticism of Israel can often be maligned and repressed.
I say that as a former State Department official who resigned over the U.S.’ unquestioning military support for Israel that has contributed to these atrocities. I co-founded and now run an organization, A New Policy, committed to shifting U.S. policy in this regard.
In that vein, I, and A New Policy’s members and partners in Colorado join the Herald in calling for our elected officials, including Rep. Jeff Hurd and Sens. Bennet and Hickenlooper, to do more to end these tragedies. The current U.S. approach is simply not in our own national interest – or that of Colorado’s taxpayers whose hard-earned wages are paying for the very bombs responsible for the killing of journalists that the Herald’s editorial highlighted.
I thank the Herald for bringing attention to this matter, and wish to assure its readers that a constituency for change is being built across the nation, from Durango to D.C.
Josh Paul
Washington, DC
