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Amid the breathless reports about the push for an Israeli settlement "freeze," it should be noted that the only such success thus far has been to freeze the settlers out of the negotiations that will determine their fate.

The Jerusalem Post recently printed a story that perfectly encapsulates the situation. Herb Keinon reports: "The reason Defense Minister Ehud Barak is at the helm of negotiations with the U.S. administration on the issue of settlements is to prevent the appearance of a conflict of interests, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at a Monday press conference, explaining that as a resident of the West Bank town Nokdim, [Lieberman] might be suspected of hampering the progress of talks that could end up forcing him out of his home."

The reason that the foreign minister, who is a resident of a settlement and the head of the second-largest party in the Knesset, is not involved in negotiations on settlements is because he lives in a settlement. This is, to borrow a phrase from "A Few Good Men," galactically stupid.

As I thought about this aversion to talking to the settlers, I realized how uniquely political such behavior is. Jews who reestablished Jewish communities in Eretz Yisrael used to be called "pioneers." They looked at mounds of desert sand and saw Tel-Aviv. But such behavior is now, in polite company, simply considered uncouth, unevolved -- they're very existence is, at best, tolerated so long as they don't influence policy or partake in the national conversation.

Here's Washington Post editor Jackson Diehl on a settlement "freeze": "No Israeli government has ever agreed to an unconditional freeze, and no coalition could be assembled from the current parliament to impose one."

Note the phrasing: impose one. Diehl doesn't pick up the phone and call Noam Arnon or even Avigdor Lieberman. He simply says that there can be no settlement freeze because no one in the Knesset is willing to pen the people of Ma'ale Adumim in like sheep.

Yet prominent Jews have been just as bad, if not worse. Former N.Y. City Mayor Ed Koch, writing about settlements, threatened that: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has to understand that he cannot with impunity and support of the American Jewish community reject the two-state solution and refuse to carry out Israel's obligations with respect to the settlements."

During the controversy over the eviction of Jewish owners of a building in Hebron called Beit Hashalom, a writer for Chabad.org named Elad Nehorai went to cover the protests, as the Palestinians nearby were hurling rocks at them, and the IDF soldiers -- some "on the verge of tears" -- were ordered to impede the settlers. Nehorai had never had any interaction with settlers, and only knew they were "extreme" and frightening. Yet, while covering the controversy, he suddenly had a change of heart.

"I thought for a moment," Nehorai writes. "And I realized that the words that I was used to hearing, such as 'extremist' and 'fanatic' seemed to dissolve away. The settlers were simply people. It quickly became obvious that more than any other word, 'frustrated' described the settlers best. Frustrated that their government ignores them. Frustrated that the world misunderstands them. But, most of all, frustrated that their own people have rejected them."

He writes that the settlers feel pent up because other Jews won't listen to them and they can't speak to reporters, who will simply twist their words. They feel voiceless. He then recalled the one moment during the night of protests when that wasn't the case: when the settlers danced and sang as they approached Beit Hashalom.

"The simple act of singing, of chanting, broke down their barriers," he writes. "Despite the fact that they felt the whole world hated them, for a moment they felt as if they could sing to everyone, even their enemies."

"Imagine," he concluded, "if someone was actually listening."

One of my favorite examples of the pride prominent Jewish thinkers take in their ignorance came from esteemed Jewish historian Jonathan Sarna. Sarna said that Jews would be uncomfortable voting for John McCain because his running mate, Sarah Palin, "harkens back to a populist tradition that is alien to most Jews -- the world of guns, of anti-urban small towns, the world where women are proud to compare themselves to pit bulls."

Only a Jew with no familiarity with or connection to Israel could possibly believe that small-town life with guns and strong women is "alien" to Jews. Unless he's only been to Eilat or Haifa -- but even in their case, who does he think built those cities if not small communities of Jews with guns and strong women? "Fear your bubbe" is apparently Sarna's message.

Jews once reserved the silent treatment for those who married out of faith. Now, like Jonathan Sarna, it's the default mechanism for anyone who resembles our grandparents.

Our brothers and sisters in Israel want to talk. Imagine if we were listening.

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.