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Pro-Israel Campus Activities Have Never Been Greater
by Stephen Kuperberg
 The
breadth and depth of pro-Israel campus activities have never been
greater. Sadly, anti-Israel protests, biased faculty and feckless
administrators still exist, but the pro-Israel campus community is
fighting back in new and more effective ways. In
recent years the pro-Israel community’s efforts have focused on
positive messages, constructive engagement and meaningful academic
discourse on Israel. This week, for example, while anti-Israel forces retread the tired ritual of
Israel Apartheid Week, alumni of pro-Israel advocacy training and of
Taglit-Birthright Israel are organizing Israel Peace Week (see Facebook) on more than 40 campuses to highlight Israel’s historic quest for peace with its
neighbors. Birthright Israel alumni
return to strengthen the work of virtually all the ICC’s 33 member
organizations. More than 50% of the participants in the ICC’s Israel
Amplified advocacy program are Birthright Israel alumni. The writer is executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition. (Jerusalem Post)
When Campus Protests Suppress Free Speech
by Wayne L. Firestone
  In recent days, we have witnessed several different forms and focal
points of protest on campuses regarding Israel and Israeli speakers,
each of which raises compelling communal issues. At the University of
California, Irvine, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was forced to stop
his address repeatedly while being interrupted by protesters. Such protests are not exercises of free speech rights — they are
systematic, premeditated, and deliberate attempts to suppress speech.
It is not that the protesters wanted their voices heard but rather, that the protesters inside the halls aimed
to silence an important voice. Hillel created an international policy eight years ago that
guides our pro-Israel work: “Hillel is steadfastly committed to the
support of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure and
recognized borders and as a member of the family of free nations.” When demonstrators call Israeli officials “a fascist” or “a murderer,”
it is not time to be squandering Jewish community resources by
attacking one another. The writer is president and CEO of Hillel.
Brown Students for Palestine (and Israel)
by Roberta Goldman
 One goal of Israel Apartheid Week is clear just from its title: to
associate Israel with a hateful regime of oppression, segregation and
discrimination. During this week, I anticipate you will hear no mention of life
happening within Israel that is the opposite of apartheid. There are
places in Israel, like the cities of Lod, Jaffa and Acre, where
Christians, Jews, Muslims, blacks, whites, Arabs and Asians work
together toward common goals. In this
melting pot, citizens live together and possess the same rights. I am a Brown student for Palestine in the most literal sense of the
phrase. I don’t support the goal of the campaign, which is divestment
of Brown University funds from Israeli companies. Nevertheless, I am a
practiced critic of the Israeli government and army. To those voices that support the existence of Israel to my left and my
right, I say, don’t feel deligitimized. I lost a close friend, an Israeli veteran and the most adamant pursuer
of peace and justice I have ever met, about two weeks ago. A few months ago, Avi Schaefer ’13 wrote, “Only through
recognition of the other side will there be peace.” (Daily Herald)
Concordia: “Israeli Apartheid Week” More LIkely to Divide than to Unite
by Alex Woznica
 The title of the "Israeli Apartheid Week" event is simply misleading.
Rather than setting the stage for education, its intentionally
provocative and innaccurate language sets the stage for the sort of
controversy and conflict which has plagued the event in the past.
Rather than resulting in helping the Palestinian people, it will serve
to further politicize an issue which regards the human rights of real
people. If the organizers of the "Israeli Apartheid Week" truly desire
to help the Palestinian people, they would be well served in titling
their event using language which is more accurate, and more likely to
unite people on what has in the past been a very divisive issue. (Concordian)
Jew Haters Don't Always Make It Obvious
by Lorrie Goldstein
The perpetual defense of Israeli Apartheid Week by its apologists,
that (yawn) “one can oppose the policies of Israel without being
anti-Semitic.” Yes, yes, yes. Of course one can criticize Israel and its many human
rights failings without being a Jew-hater and no doubt many who attend
Israeli Apartheid Week, including some Jews, aren’t Jew-haters. But that’s not the point. The point is that all Jew-haters hate Israel, and that part of the
manifestation of their hatred is to attempt to turn it into a pariah
state by constantly holding it up to a higher moral standard than any
other nation, while ignoring greater human rights abuses by its hostile
neighbors, including tyrannical Islamic republics and corrupt Arab
petro-states. Constant, selective, moral outrage against one
example of alleged racism that deliberately ignores all other forms of
racism — to say nothing of anti-Israeli terrorism — is indeed racism,
or, in this context, Jew-hatred. (Toronto Sun - Canada)
Wisconsin-Madison: Misguided Views of Israel, Taglit-Birthright
by Julian Klazkin, letter to the editor
 According to Mr. Horn, Taglit-Birthright Israel is nothing less than a public
relations tool used to coerce young American students to blindly
support Israel and the Israeli government. I must disagree. There is no secret the organization tries to strengthen the
relationship between young American Jews and Israel from which all Jews
trace their origin. And what’s wrong with that? My children went on the same trip Mr. Horn went on and explained to me
that, yes, they do get the Israeli point of view, but they are also
encouraged to do their own research and analysis and form their own
conclusions. Unfortunately, Mr. Horn did not do that. (Badger Herald)
York: Something's Seriously Wrong at York University
by David Frum
 York University will once again open its halls and classrooms to “Israel Apartheid Week,” so-called. At York, speech is free — better than free, subsidized — for
anti-Israel haters. But for those who would defend Israel, York sets
very different rules. The campus group Christians United for Israel applied to use university space to host a program of pro-Israel speakers. The university replied that the organizers would have to provide an advance list of all program
attendees and advance summaries of all the speeches. No advertising for
the program would be permitted. But the hate-Israel program is not required to pay for its own security. It
is free to advertise. Its speakers are not pre-screened by the
university. Even when public speech is not an issue, Jewish students at York
experience ethnically and religiously based intimidation and even
violence. Something has gone seriously wrong at Canada’s third-largest university. (National Post -- Canada)
See also Not Sending Any More Grads to York - David Murrell, University of New Brunswick (National Post -- Canada)
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Apartheid Activist Slams 'Israel Apartheid Week'
by Marcus Dysch
 A renowned anti-apartheid activist has defended Israel against comparisons with racially segregated South Africa. South African-born Benjamin Pogrund, former deputy editor of the
Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg, visited Britain this week as
pro-Palestinian groups marked the sixth annual Israeli Apartheid Week. He said: "I say flatly: Israel within its 1948 borders is not an
apartheid state. That is nonsense. Anyone who says it is has either
forgotten or does not know what apartheid was.... People who claim Israel is an apartheid state are doing it with a very
clear purpose. They are trying to have Israel declared as illegitimate
and a pariah state, as much as South Africa was. What the activists are
really about is destroying Israel." (Jewish Chronicle -- UK)
BU: "Israel Apartheid Week" Astounding Act of Moral Hypocrisy
by Richard Landes
 The organizations running and supporting IAW are engaged
in one of the most astounding acts of moral hypocrisy and intellectual
dishonesty in the young annals of the 21st century.
Begin with hypocrisy: Palestinian spokesmen and their supporters
accuse Israel of “apartheid,” and of “behaving like Nazis.” And yet
Hamas and Fatah daily incite Palestinians to genocidal hatred that
borrows liberally from Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda. Those “progressives” who disseminate this vicious hypocrisy at
best might plead ignorance: We had no idea that
Palestinian TV – including its children’s programs - regularly incites
to genocide; we had no idea that whenever the Palestinians have had
power that they oppressed their own people and massacred their
neighbors.
Even then, if they are not guilty of moral hypocrisy, they are guilty of intellectual dishonesty. (Daily Free Press)
Columbia: Israeli “Apartheid”: A Call for Facts
by Eric J. Schorr
 Israel, far from being a modern incarnation of an “apartheid” state is,
in fact, a vibrant representative democracy that guarantees equal
rights to all its citizens, in both theory and practice. Israeli law protects all Israeli citizens, and all ethnic, religious,
and political groups, large and small, are represented in the Israeli
parliament system. Shouldn’t it be recognized that suicide bombing and rocketing innocent
civilians is a horrible crime, one which the Israeli government is
morally required to prevent? We must therefore ask these students for
“justice.” What is just? To protect innocent lives in a democracy, or
to actively campaign for the demonization and economic ruin of a
country that cherishes all we believe in: the rights to life, speech,
assembly, and of course, justice for all. (Columbia Spectator)
See also The worst apartheid on earth continues to be practiced by the Muslim world not only against Israel but against Jews in general. By Jack Eisenberg, '62, Letter to the Editor (Columbia Spectator)
Wisconsin-Madison: Journalistic Ethics Still Apply to Ad Space
by Rachel Racoosin, letter to the editor
You can imagine my horror early Wednesday while on the Badger
Herald’s website I discovered an advertisement for the Committee for
Open Debate on the Holocaust. This advertisement is linked to the
website of Holocaust denier Bradley Smith. Jason Smathers, editor-in-chief of The Badger Herald, responded to the
placement of the advertisement. While he acknowledged the false nature
of the claims made by the CODOH, he also maintained that the
advertisement would remain on the Badger Herald website. This incident has reinforced my vow to tell the story of the Holocaust and to educate others. As a student, a journalist, a storyteller and a proud Jew, I challenge
our student newspapers to uphold their commitment and integrity as
journalists—to always seek the truth and to always provide a fair and
comprehensive account of events and issues. Allowing the Holocaust
denial advertisements is completely at odds with these goals. (Daily Cardinal)
Yale: For a Bolder Braver Country
by Lauren Nobel
 As Americans, we used to see ourselves as the spreaders of democracy,
implementers of Marshall Plans and indoctrinators of human rights; we
used to be proud of it. But now, we frequently speak about the
impending post-American world. Our malaise is not the product of insufficient inspiration, but rather a regressive quest for certainty and security. When we enter into foreign affairs, we need to do so with the courage
of our convictions. When President Harry S. Truman recognized Israel,
he did so emphatically — 11 minutes after the country declared its
independence — even though there was disagreement within his own
cabinet about whether the decision was politically expedient or even
right. The clear mandate sent by Truman, in turn, spurred later
presidents to support Israel when it mattered; even President Richard
Nixon, who is noted for his anti-Semitism, was willing to act. Bold, brave action cannot alone deliver on the promise of a better world. But inaction certainly won’t. (Yale Daily News)
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