oints of view >> Send letters to: letters®thejewishnews.com 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. ❑ 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. ❑