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Campus Wars

Students learn to speak up for Israel,
but some are unconvinced.

JULIE WIENER

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Honesdale, Pa.
usk was blanketing the
Pocono Mountains as Katie
Wells stood on the grass a
few yards from hundreds of
students dancing to Israeli folk tunes.
A sophomore at Ohio State University,
Wells had spent the day attending ses-
sions on Zionism and Israel's history, a
sort of crash course in how to promote
Israel on campus. She wasn't sure what to
make of it all. "I'm so unknowledgeable"
about Israel, she said.
Wells was like many of the 387
other students at the Schusterman
Hillel International Student Leaders
Assembly, a five-day retreat that, for
the first time in years, had devoted a
full day to Israel advocacy. The other
days were devoted to leadership train-
ing and Jewish learning.
She said the Israel advocacy day was
"definitely rejuvenating and very posi-
tive, but also kind of hard to swallow
because it's so pro-Israel," she said.
As the organized Jewish community
tries to mobilize campus support for
Israel, it faces Jewish students who
lack the confidence to defend Israel
but not certain what to believe.
Last fall, pro-Palestinian students
mobilized rapidly after the latest Intifada
began, bringing in speakers, posting
anti-Israel fliers, raising placards deni-
grating Zionism as racism and Nazism,
and building mock Israeli checkpoints
and Palestinian refugee camps. Many
Arab and Muslim student groups seem
willing to champion the Palestinian
cause unquestioningly, but Jewish stu-
dents appear far more ambivalent.
Brian Jaffee, director of Hamags-
himim, the university movement
sponsored by Hadassah: The Women's
Zionist Organization of America, said
most American Jewish students lack
the education and emotional connec-
tions to Israel "to be that passionate
about it." Adding to the challenge,
Jaffee said, is that students "want to be
good universal humanists and first and
foremost care about human rights. its
tough for them to appear that they're
taking sides on any issue."
Many students said they felt over-

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Related commentary: page 28

whelmed sorting through the facts of the
Arab-Israeli conflict and still did not know
how to respond to anti-Israel rhetoric.
Israel Advocacy Day sessions ranged
from "Why Are They Saying Those
Terrible Things About Israel?" to "The
ABCs of Zionist Legitimacy: How to
Feel More Secure about Discussing
Israel on Campus," and "Programming
for Peace, Tolerance and Coexistence."
Students also received packets of infor-
mation from Hillel, the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee and
Hamagshimim. Materials included basic
talking points, responses to common
charges against Israel and tips for organ-
izing rallies, vigils and other events.
In a keynote speech, Lenny Ben-
David, former deputy chief of mission
at the Israeli Embassy in Washington,
told students they were on the "front
lines" of defending Israel.
"As students, you are energetic,
inquisitive, have research skills and are
computer literate if not computer
geniuses," he said. "That makes you
potent." Ben-David urged students to
write term papers on topics such as
the history of Israel's right to exist and
human rights violations in the Arab
world, then use the information to
write Op-Ed pieces in their campus
newspapers or to speak on campus.
But not all the students seemed com-
fortable being cheerleaders for Israel.
Some said they weren't certain whether to
trust the materials they received at the
advocacy day, and others emphasized that
they do not support all Israeli policies.
Zachary Gerson of Stanford
University said that while he supports
Israel, "that doesn't mean I support
everything about it. I've been disap-
pointed with the uncompromising
attitudes both sides are taking."
Despite the battering Israel has
taken on many campuses this year, few
students had much appetite for anti-
Palestinian publicity campaigns.
The students at the retreat who did
feel passionately about Israel — many
wore T-shirts with their college names
transliterated into Hebrew —
expressed frustration at what they see
as apathy from their Jewish classmates.
Several said that while their Muslim
and Arab counterparts are organizing
rallies, they still struggle to get most
Jewish students to participate in occa-
sional Hillel events. El

