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Essay

Editorial

Be Prepared To Defend
Israel On Your Campus

D

ear High School Senior:
the United Nations. Stand up for Israel, the Jewish
It's spring — the season to ponder
state, even if you disagree with some Israeli gov-
where you've been and what lies ahead.
ernment policies or find resonance with legitimate
Be proud of your accomplishments even as you
concerns of the Palestinian people. Israel needs
reflect on where you've come up short. And savor
you.
all the special moments surrounding your gradua-
The anti-Zionists saddled to BDS have fantasized
tion. You've earned it.
an Israel that occupies and colonizes Arab lands,
You're now at a crossroads. Which way you go
treats Israeli Arabs as second-class citizens, and
will help determine your life's direction.
prevents Arab refugees from the 1948 war with
Whether you are headed for the workplace or
Israel and their descendants the right to return to
the campus, the specter of anti-Jewish and anti-
Israeli homes and properties. Of course, the real
Israel sentiment, typically born from ignorance or
intent of BDS is to delegitimize Israel — to under-
indoctrination, will cloud your newfound indepen- mine its existence as a sovereign Jewish state.
dence even as you find plenty to enjoy along the
way. There are racial and religious hatred laws, but
Boning Up
they are tough to enforce. Your best defense against Zionism is antithetic to BDS, which will resort
ethnic intimidation: knowledge.
to shock and awe to sway the international court
This breed of hostility on campus
of public opinion. Remember when
often is protected under the guise
Students Allied for Freedom and
of free speech despite all the Zionist
Equality (SAFE) posted mock eviction
Organization of America (ZOA),
notices in six University of Michigan
StandWithUs and our campus Hillels
dormitories in 2013 to draw attention
are doing to expose open incitement
to what it claimed was Israel's "ongo-
against Israel for what it is: unadulter-
ing forced expulsion of indigenous
ated hate.
Palestinians from their land to clear
Chances are, those of you headed
the way for the construction of illegal
to a college or university weighed
Jewish-only settlements" in occupied
its Jewish flavor along with its aca-
Arab lands? Only a well-informed
Robert Sklar
demic lineup and other opportuni-
Jewish student can solidly refute that.
Contrib uting
ties to grow. Does it have a Hillel or
What you learned in Sunday school,
Edito
a Chabad center or another form of
in Hebrew school, in young adult groups
Jewish outreach? Does it offer Jewish
at synagogue or in the Jewish com-
Studies? Does it seem safe for Jewish students
munity, or even on a visit to Israel is likely to feel
given the international glare of disdain toward
inadequate when measured against the calculated
Israel?
and compelling simplicity of BDS: That Israel is the
aggressor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that
Important Impact
boycott, divestment and sanctions are plausible,
You may not have thought about the "Israel
nonviolent means to pressure Israel to relent.
Effect:' or what New York Jewish Week editor Gary
Israel's contentious acts, typically designed to
Rosenblatt calls "The Israel Factor," when you
defend its borders and citizens although some-
applied to a campus of higher education, but know
times rooted in regrettable politics, can force
you'll have to consider it moving forward. Rest
seasoned Zionists to recoil, let alone intimidated
assured Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians
students.
will arise as a pervasive subject in corridors and
The reality is Israel has offered significant con-
under archways if not in classrooms. Student pro-
cessions involving borders over the years in search
tests, professorial bias and outside agitation are
of a lasting peace with the Palestinians — only to
potential flashpoints. The Israel Effect won't be all
find rejection and violence.
encompassing; studies and campus life will con-
There's no reason to think palpable negotiations
tinue to dominate, and there'll be plenty to connect will begin any time soon. You can't be blamed
with. But the Effect will kick in.
for throwing your arms up in despair amid the
Topic No. 1 will be BDS — the Boycott,
convoluted timeline associated with peace initia-
Divestment and Sanctions movement. It's preva-
tives throughout Israel's 67-year history. Arab-fed
lent on liberal campuses although liable to bubble
fantasy obscures many of the facts while Israeli
up anywhere. The question becomes just how
intransigence has made it a pariah of sorts with
equipped your campus is to stand up to this pep-
little understanding of how to regain its interna-
per pot of political subversion and repressive anti-
tional standing.
Zionism? What's more, is there pro-Israel advocacy
Make The Effort
on campus to staunch BDS hypocrisy?
I fear the PR-savvy of BDS will overwhelm
Pro-Israel education and advocacy on campus have
Jewish students bent on defending the ancestral
become essential to giving Jewish students the
Jewish homeland, but who are lacking when con-
confidence and context they need to separate myth
fronted by charges that Israel is the impediment
from reality. Groups like the ZOA, StandWithUs,
to peace, that its army is ruthless in war and that
the Jewish Community Relations Council, Hillel
the Palestinians have a right to seek statehood at
as well as a range of Jewish websites and Jewish

Be Prepared on page 45

44

May 28 • 2015

Palestinian Strategy
Detriment To Peace

t's hard to believe productive negotiations over borders, security
and other central issues are in the offing between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), umbrella for the two
groups representing the Palestinian people: Fatah and Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on record saying he
supports the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, but doesn't think the time is ripe for a Palestinian state -
and he's right.
Recent anti-Jewish sentiment uncovered by Israel-based
Palestinian Media Watch reinforces that.
PMW found such sentiment channeled by both a spokesman for
Fatah, which governs Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank,
and a professor in the Gaza Strip, ruled by terror-monger Hamas.
Fatah and Hamas joined last year under the rubric of the Palestinian
Authority.
In an interview on official P.A. TV about Israel's policies toward
the Gaza Strip, Fatah spokesman Osama Al Qawasmi quoted, as if
a legitimate publication, the 1903 Russian forgery The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion, which fantasizes Jewish subjugation of the world.
The Palestinians present it as a true manifestation of Jewish and
Israeli aspirations, PMW has documented.

I

Another Impediment

P.A. TV also gave Dr. Ibrahim Abrash, a political science professor at
Al Azhar University in Gaza, a bully pulpit to claim that Judaism is
rooted in extremism and allows stealing from and killing gentiles. He
also claimed that Zionism denies recognition of the Palestinians as
a people.
It doesn't help that the P.A. and Fatah, let alone Hamas, continue
to deny to the Palestinian people Israel's existence in any form,
citing Israeli towns, villages and sites as "Palestinian" and part of
"occupied" land, according to PMW.
In winter Facebook posts, for example, the P.A. National Security
Forces described Mount Tabor, a biblically significant mountain in
the Jezreel Valley (part of Detroit Jewry's partner region in the
Central Galilee) as located in "occupied Nazareth." Remnants of the
Caesarea hippodrome, King Herod's arena that held 20,000 specta-
tors for chariot races, was described as situated in "Palestine."
PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas is P.A. president and the guy
President Barack Obama considers the Palestinian linchpin to
any peace agreement with Israel. In an April post on Facebook, he
declared (despite PLO pronouncements to the contrary), "Palestine
means the entire national land, from the River to the Sea." A
peek at a Western map underscores that declaration essentially
means there's no room for Israel between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea.

Perilous Way Forward

It's critically important for Jews to know that since May 7, accord-
ing to PMW, all P.A. TV broadcasts have shown a logo with P.A. rep-
resentation of the map of "Palestine." That phantom nation-state
encompasses current P.A. areas, the Gaza Strip and all of Jerusalem
and the rest of modern-day Israel - suffocating the notion of a
"two-state solution" of any kind.
Separate April posts on Facebook by P.A. government divisions
urged "Die in your rage, Zionists!" and "Jerusalem, we will not for-
sake a single grain of your soil."
It's easy to dismiss such social media posts as political rants. But
when they're coupled with Israel-demonizing on P.A. TV, a broadcast
service indelibly tied to Abbas' Ramallah-based government, the
posts become indoctrination tools and unmitigated anthems for
hate - and no framework for meaningful talks toward lasting Israeli-
Palestinian peace. ❑