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Bar-Ilan: Human Rights Watch: Troubling Report
by Avi Bell

In portraying Israel as the perpetrator, rather than the victim, of war crimes, Human Rights Watch encourages violation of the very legal standards that it purports to uphold. By rejecting legitimate criticisms, Human Rights Watch demonstrates that it is not a credible reporter or advocate of human rights. The writer is a member of Bar Ilan's faculty of law. (New York Sun)


Haifa: Back to the Eisenhower Doctrine
by Yair Hirschfeld

Several days after the publication of the Baker-Hamilton Report, David Welch, the head of the Middle East desk in the United States Department of State, argued before a selected audience that U.S. policy had been, and would continue to be, to isolate American enemies in the Middle East: Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaida. The policy was to isolate each of them separately and all of them together. On a more positive note, Israel should be encouraged to support Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Apparently, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has fully adopted this strategic approach. The writer is a lecturer on the Middle East. (Ha'aretz)
   See also Zucker Takes on the Iraq Study Group and James Baker (YouTube)


Quebec: Israel Is Not What You Think
by Adam Daifallah

Israel must be supported. I have no problem saying this as someone who is of partly Palestinian ancestry. Israel is a democratic, pluralistic western outpost in the middle of a cesspool of tyranny and despair. The image you get on TV of Israel as a country full of religious people is wrong. Israel is actually quite a secular country, and its inhabitants come from all different faiths. There are a million or so Arab Israelis inhabiting its lands, many of whom are Muslim. There are Christians, Druze, Zoroastrians - and let's not forget the bedouins. When we visited a hospital, we met a bedouin woman who, while still living the traditional nomadic life, was being trained as a doctor by Jewish doctors. The writer is currently studying law at Laval University in Quebec City. (Daifallah.com)


Big Saudis on Campus
by Stephen Schwartz

Wouldn't it make more sense for King Abdullah to cut the links between his government and the Wahhabi ideology, to reform the kingdom's own political and educational systems first, to allow for religious liberty and free expression--and only then to ask that thousands of Saudis be accepted on trust into the U.S. higher education system? Even if they pass security examinations, Saudi students heading for America will still be products of the old, Wahhabi-based Saudi schools. Saudis already have plenty of ways to learn American values: via satellite television, the Internet, and reading. And younger members of the American elite would no doubt eagerly build relationships with their Saudi counterparts if the kingdom opened its borders to normal tourism. (Weekly Standard)


Columbia: Israel Loses a Friend
by Yariv Nornberg

Sadly, I must reach the conclusion that in writing "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" Mr. Carter decided to transform himself from a goodwill player to an ardent advocate of the Palestinian cause. I am not suggesting that it is not his right to do so, but I would have expected a more evenhanded account from a man of his stature. Unfortunately, I see instead that he has become an obsessively biased critic of Israel, and even worse, due to his perceived credibility, a new hero for those seeking to undermine Israel's very right to exist. Today, modern Israel lost a friend, and the Israelis and the Palestinians remain with no peace. No Shalom and No Chaver. The writer is a recent graduate from Columbia University and  worked as a graduate assistant in conflict resolution at Jimmy Carter's Center.(Washington Times)


Harvard: Take It or Leave It
by Ana I. Mendy '09

The call for peacemaking in Palestine also needs revision. A Hamas-dominated government - which denies Israel’s right to exist - will certainly prove hostile to negotiations with Israel, and permanent peace will surely not materialize in the reported timeframe of a year. Moreover, the call for the transfer of the Golan Heights from Israel to Syria and the establishment of a stable Palestinian state could easily be construed as diminishing U.S. support for Israel. (Harvard Crimson)


Wayne State: Carter Ignores Israel's Integration of Arabs while Pushing Propaganda
by Berl Falbaum

In every conflict with the Palestinians, Carter has always blamed Israel; thus the book is hardly a revelation. During the most recent war in Lebanon, he chastised Israel for bombing the "entire" country. It is actually sad to witness Carter, once the most powerful leader of the free world, write what amounts to nothing but propaganda. It is particularly sad when one considers all the valuable history books written by former world leaders that made outstanding contributions to the understanding of events that happened under their watch. Playing on the title of Carter's book, I would like to see a book titled: "Jimmy Carter: Historian, Not Anti-Israel Propagandist." The writer teaches Journalism at Wayne State. (The Detroit)


Why Do Irish Academics Persist In Advocating Boycott and Divesting From Israel?
by Alex Grobman

Americans should actively oppose the Irish and any other academic groups that engage in this unjustified and morally reprehensible activity, because as Fred Taub points out, divestment campaigns are an attack on the U.S. “Foreign governments,” he urges, “should not be allowed to dictate US foreign policy,” and they must not be permitted to promote the destruction of the economy of another democracy. (Israel Hasbara Committee)