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Essay
Editorial
Confronting Campus
Hate Toward Israel
B
eware of the new chapter of
its fraudulent claims about Israel. The
Students for Justice in Palestine at
Jewish community must stay vigilant
Eastern Michigan University. SJP
and prepared. Jewish students must
is a pro-Palestinian organization that pur-
be well informed and fearless to avert
ports to cry out against Palestinian oppres-
recoiling from SJP propaganda. Says the
sion perpetrated by Israel. It has bought
Jewish Community Relations Council
into the anti-Israel parlance that Israel
of Metropolitan Detroit: "On most cam-
committed war crimes this summer in its
puses, SJP leads the BDS effort. They focus
battle with Hamas.
solely on Israel as the bad guy and the
SJP, founded in 2001, has
Palestinians as victims:'
grown into a consortium
Rallying to bring awareness
of North American campus
to distressed Palestinians is
chapters that works to dis-
worthy. Many Palestinians do
credit Israel's existence and
live in poverty and squalor; their
promote the boycott, divest-
situation is heartrending. But
ment and sanctions (BDS)
to blame Israel is to ignore that
movement against the Jewish
Arab leaders are responsible for
state. It envisions grassroots
Palestinians remaining herded
campus organizing evolving
in refugee camps or depressed
into a nationwide campaign to
villages as a way to evoke world
Robert Sklar
inspire "liberation and justice
sympathy and support for the
Contri buting
for Palestine" SJP grasps the
Palestinian statehood push.
Edi for
effectiveness of building bridges
SJP will gather for its annual
among campuses to transport a
national conference Oct. 24-26
hate-filled agenda for change.
at Tufts University near Boston. The theme
SJP chapters number at least 80. It
will be urging a joint struggle on behalf of
also has a local presence at Wayne State
oppressed Palestinians and against racial,
University and the University of Michigan-
military or colonial injustice waged by the
Dearborn. The SJP national website brand-
U.S. and other nations.
ed this summer's war "the worst Israeli
Pro-Israel students, faculty and adminis-
assault in memory" This view obscures that trators on every campus with a SJP chapter
Israeli air strikes were in response to inces-
must organize and robustly counter SJP
sant Hamas rocket attacks and couldn't
indoctrination. Neither they nor parents
avoid civilians who Hamas purposely clus-
can be timid or uninformed.
tered amid weapons batteries.
Pro-Israel forces must do a better job of
connecting to the centers of power, influ-
Israel Targeted
ence and messaging on campus. They must
The Anti-Defamation League maintains
know how to access influential off-campus
SJP has demonized Israel by characterizing
and on-campus communication vehicles
Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as
to drive home pro-Israel ideas. Given the
racist and apartheid-like. SJP-sponsored
arrival of SJP there, the administration at
Palestine Awareness Week on campuses
EMU must embrace Jewish student con-
typically positions Israel as a catalyst for
cerns and sensitivities while encouraging
ethnic cleansing and genocide, according to an atmosphere that fosters free speech, but
the ADL.
not religious or ethnic intimidation.
At EMU, a campus in Ypsilanti with an
Progress in resolving the Israeli-
estimated 400 Jewish students, SJP student
Palestinian standoff will only occur
spokesman Fatma Jaber told the Eastern
through open, honest, fact-based discus-
Echo student newspaper on Sept. 14 "that
sions, which is why SJP statements must be
Palestinians are being oppressed daily by
closely monitored.
Zionist forces and we hope students will
Cindy Hughey is executive director of
declare justice for Palestinians in any way
Hillel Campus Alliance of Michigan, which
that is peaceful and sustainable:'
works closely with the EMU Jewish Studies
program director, Dr. Martin Shichtman.
A poster display by the chapter sought to
correlate this summer's plight among Gazans Hughey told the IN, "Uninformed,
with that of blacks in America, citing the
anti-Israel canards do not advance the
August shooting of a black teen by a police
debate. In several countries in Europe, the
officer in Ferguson, Mo., a case still under
anti-Israel sentiment has opened the doors
investigation. SJP alleges the protesters in
to acts of anti-Semitism against Jews in
Ferguson were gassed with the same product general, so it is important to guard against
Israel used to repress the people of Gaza.
that climate developing in the U.S."
SJP is constitutionally protected, but that
Standing Ready
doesn't give it free rein to spread its vitriol
SJP is nationally relevant because of
uncontested.
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28
October 9 • 2014
JPi
Obama Wrongly Blames
Israel Yet Again
S
o President Obama believes the violence
engulfing the Middle East has somehow
weakened Israeli resolve for "the hard work
of peace." He was wrong to imply Israel has stifled
renewed peace talks. The Netanyahu government didn't
abandon the last round; Palestinian negotiators walked
away.
Of all places to rebuke Israel, America's closest ally
in the tinderbox that is the Middle East, Obama chose
the U.N. General Assembly. The United Nations has
President Obama
been host to a slew of anti-Israel resolutions over the
years.
In his Sept. 24 address, Obama correctly observed that the peril
brought by ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, dispels the illusion
that the Israeli-Palestinian standoff "is the main source of problems in
the region." But he implored Israel to ponder how inconsonant conditions
elsewhere have diminished its interest in peace with the Palestinians.
Like Obama says, status quo in the Palestinian territories is bad for
everyone. The world would be better off with two states living side by
side, in peace and security, at least in theory. But until there's new
leadership and a change of heart within the Gaza Strip and Palestinian-
controlled areas of the West Bank, a two-state solution remains a pipe-
dream.
The Backdrop
It was stunning to hear the president, who came to the front late in
understanding ISIS' global threat, come down hard on Israel, the only
democracy in a region permeated by Islamism, the radical political form
of Islam that promotes terror against all infidels, basically anyone who is
different.
His odd timing harkens to when he chided Israel for challenging his call
for a Palestinian state on the 1949 armistice lines (which today are essen-
tially indefensible), plus agreed swaps, instead of allowing negotiations to
run their course.
Obama said there's "nothing new about wars within religions.
Christianity endured centuries of vicious sectarian conflict. Today, it is
violence within Muslim communities that has become the source of so
much human misery."
He's right: "It is time to acknowledge the destruction wrought by proxy
wars and terror campaigns between Sunni and Shia across the Middle
East. And it is time that political, civic and religious leaders reject sectar-
ian strife. So let's be clear: This is a fight that no one is winning."
The forces of evil, especially in Syria, Iraq and Iran, are on the move.
And they continue to press on in parts of Afghanistan, Lebanon and Gaza.
Israel Concessions
The Palestinian Authority, Israel's so-called peace partner, has taken an
unusual negotiating approach: avoid talks, glorify terrorists, incite hatred,
condone murder, blur history, reject Israel as a Jewish state and vow to
bar Jews from a future Palestinian state. The P.A. outright rejected U.S.
and Israeli statehood offers in 2000 and 2008. And it crippled the negoti-
ating process by seeking statehood through the U.N. The unity agreement
between the P.A. and Gaza-ruling Hamas, a terrorist organization that
ignited this summer's war with Israel because of relentless rocket attacks,
makes any P.A. strides toward conciliation with Israel suspect.
It was Israel that variously pulled out of the Gaza Strip, recognized P.A.
control in parts of the West Bank, froze settlement development for 10
months and released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in a gesture of
good will — all despite no indication the Palestinians truly want peace.
President Obama talked tough before the U.N. General Assembly in say-
ing ISIS "must be degraded and ultimately destroyed." He called on the
Muslim world to repel the ideology of ISIS and its progenitor, Al Qaida.
But he turned the harsh glare of public scrutiny toward Israel by wildly
declaring it is primed "to abandon" the peace process, tenuous as it is.
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