Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
and the Israel on Campus Coalition by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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March 3, 2003 |
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Inside this issue -
Issues on Campus:
College Student Leaders Split On Iraq War
At a national Hillel conference last week, talk kept returning to a potential Persian Gulf war. When more than 400 Jewish college student activists came to Baltimore this week to hone their public policy skills and further activist agendas ranging from enhancing literacy at home to pushing human rights abroad, war in Iraq was a theme from which they could not escape. (Baltimore Jewish Times)
USF Fires Prof. Accused of Heading Terror Org
For 14 months, University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft threatened to fire professor Sami Al-Arian. She finally did on Wednesday, one week after Al-Arian was arrested on federal charges of being a terrorist. "We have determined that USF must sever all ties to Sami Al-Arian once and for all," she said. "His use of this educational institution for improper, noneducational purposes will not be tolerated." (St. Petersburg Times)
See also Al-Arian's Termination Gets Mixed Reviews (Oracle); Did a Muslim Professor Use Activism as a Cloak for Terror? - Michael Isikoff (Newsweek)
Locating the Hate in Anti-Zionism by Eli Muller
I have heard unending discussion of whether anti-Zionism constitutes anti-Semitism. Many negative things can and
should be said about Israel's current policies without the speaker being subjected to charges of anti-Semitism. But when such remarks take on a reckless disregard for the factual, the proportional, or the right of individuals to be assessed on their own merits rather than on the basis of their ethnicity, such rhetoric begins to reek of bigotry. For example, arguing that Israel should demolish all settlements in the West Bank and Gaza strip is far from anti-Semitic. Nor is it anti-Semitic to note the objective fact of the extent of Palestinian suffering. To suggest that Israel is an apartheid state, Nazi-like in its policies, intent on genocide or ethnic cleansing, however, is to bury the truth beneath the vilest of epithets. To demonize Israel in this way, to see it as a monster among the nations perpetrating "affronts to humanity," smacks of a level of hatred beyond the limits of criticism. (Yale Daily News)
News and Comment:
New Israeli Government Formed
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his government were sworn in last week. In announcing his government to the Knesset, Sharon said: "In conversations with U.S. President George W. Bush and senior officials in his government, we reached an understanding regarding the necessary conditions to initiate a political process, as well as the need for a gradual outline to resolve this long-lasting and complex conflict between the Palestinians and ourselves. Before returning to a political track, the Palestinian Authority must stop terror and incitement, implement far-reaching reforms, and replace its current leadership. A political process which will lead to genuine peace must be based on lessons learned from the failed attempts of the past decade."
(Ha'aretz)
U.S. Jewish Soldiers Confident On Eve Of War
Among those making their way around the Fort Dix processing room, about 1.5 percent will identify themselves as Jewish. There are Jews from all denominations. Last week, an Orthodox Jewish soldier requested kosher food. He will be issued kosher MRE -- meals ready to eat. Soldiers get a special siddur, prepared by the Jewish Chaplaincy Council and the only one approved by all three major Jewish denominations, and a Magen David pendant, which seems to be quite popular. Beginning in March, soldiers will get Passover seder kits to take with them for Passover. (JTA/ New Jersey Jewish News)
Voices from the Campus:
Brandeis: Petition Heats Up War Debate
Daniel Mauer '06 has completed a petition to put to a vote whether or not the Brandeis student body officially supports a war against Iraq. Mauer stated that it would be of special interest to the media if the Brandeis student body passes such a resolution, because the University has a predominantly Jewish student body. According to Mauer, Most Jews are assumed to support war because of Iraq's potential threat to Israel. The goal behind establishing an official student body stance on the war is to attract media attention and create solidarity among anti-war activists, Mauer said. Mira Meyerovich '03, one of the organizers of the new Brandeis club, United We Stand, a pro-United States club said her club was not simply pro-war, but in favor of this specific war. "Though we believe that war is evil, in the case of Iraq, it is a necessary evil that would save the lives of many more innocent people than would be harmed by it," she said.
(The Justice)
U of Mass: Speaker Discusses Hate and Preaches Tolerance
Malaka Bublil formed JIMENA a year ago to educate people about the Jewish plight in the Middle East and North Africa. "Hate is a drug that has very little recovery," Bubil said. "Hate is a
weapon of mass destruction." Bublil is a Libyan refugee. In 1967, anti-Jewish riots broke out in Libya, due to the Six Year War between Egypt and Israel. The riots broke out and Bublil and her family were forced to leave their country. Despite bad experiences, Bublil still preaches tolerance. "To the Palestinian mother, who sends her child to become a suicide bomber, I say this: Hate is a drug from which there is little hope of recovery. Teach tolerance, not hate," she said. "I am a mother, like you. I feel love is stronger that hate. I too was exiled. But my heart is healing. Despite my pain, despite my despair, despite my anger, I would never want to emulate the hate that exists in the world today." (Massachusetts Daily Collegian)
Stanford: Listening Is Key to Peace - Editorial
It is clear that peaceful conflict resolution in present-day Israel will not be possible without some compromise on each side. But a resolution cannot be reached if the parties involved make suggestions that the others involved cannot accept. everyone on campus can get involved in groups that are fostering interaction between Israelis and Palestinians in non-competitive, peaceful settings. One does not need to be Israeli or Palestinian, Jewish or Muslim. In this critical time, members of the Stanford community must support these student groups and any others in their endeavors to transfer the heat of the Israeli-Palestinian debate or the indifference of excluded voices into constructive, inclusive alliances.
(Stanford Daily)
Alabama: Speaker Addresses Problems in Israeli Government
Professor Gideon Doron spoke about the tumultuous Israeli political system. Many people forget Israel, as a nation, is less than
55 years old, Doron said. It is a nation with a history full of turmoil and strife. It is also a nation with a very confusing political system. "Many do not understand our political system," Doron said. "Many in our own parliament don't understand our political system." Doron addressed Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and estimated that 70 percent would also be willing to give Palestinians most of what they want for the sake of stability in the country. (Crimson White)
Applauding Falsehoods at a University by James Kirchick
I was present at the Amiri Baraka affair at the Afro-American
Cultural Center and I must say that it was one of the most disturbing events in my entire life. It was not Baraka's ranting which upset me most. It was the response he received from my fellow Yalies that shocked me. At the end of the event, the crowd leapt to its feet to give the former poet laureate of New Jersey a rousing standing ovation. Why were Baraka's words received such enthusiastic approval? Did those cheering in the audience that day feel no need to question his history of racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks? Why did they accept without hesitation Baraka's claim that Israelis were responsible for the World Trade Center attacks? University Dean George did not end, however, with her criticism of those who believed that Baraka's hate speech had no place at Yale. She went on the offensive in writing, "When an invitation was extended from a residential college at Yale to a former Israeli general and soldier it seemed appropriate that it be protested; it was appalling to hear students share anti-Palestinian remarks at a tea with Yoni Fighel." -- That George would compare an apolitical Israeli counterterrorism expert to a man who has written, "I got the/ extermination blues, jewboys, i got/ the hitler syndrome figured," is insulting.
(Yale Daily News)
Campus Organizations:
Spring/Summer Registration Opens for Birthright Israel
BRI plans to send thousands of young Jewish adults, ages 18-26, on a 10-day educational peer group trip to Israel, with trips starting in May and continuing through August. Over 8,000 participants just returned from the winter 2003 trips, where they had a special audience with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who said, "When I look at the thousands of young people that stand before me, I know that we can look forward with optimism and know that together, we can fulfill all of the dreams of the Jewish people."
Students in Israel:
As World Prepares for Iraq War, American Jews Prepare to Help Israel
For David Rendsburg, 20, volunteering in Israel with 24 other students from the University of Pennsylvania on his winter break was laden with meaning. The group labored in a warehouse with stacks of thousands of gas masks to be assembled. Aviva Weinberg, 19, who also helped organize the trip, felt inspired by the "incredible fortitude and optimism" of the Israelis she met. They're "fighting for their country and we're here studying in university. It's a rather easy ivory tower existence," said Weinberg, who said the trip motivated her to further her activism on campus and "help people find their own form of Zionism for themselves." (JTA)
Israeli Students in the U.S.:
New Mexico: Keren Sari-Bentzur Stars in the Pentathlon
Keren Sari-Bentzur became just the fourth UNM woman ever to win an indoor conference title. (Golobos.com)
Point - Counter - Point: - To War or Not To War
A Liberal's War Too. Against Innocence by Leon Wieseltier (The New Republic)
My own view is that it is quite easy to defend the necessity and the justice of separating Saddam Hussein from his lethal devices, which is the same thing as separating him from his power, which is the same thing as aiding in the formation of a democratic government in Baghdad. The only genuine solution to the problem of the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological arms is political development. It comes in many kinds, and often with assistance from the outside. (There is imperialism, and there is assistance from the outside. It is not naive to maintain the distinction, unless one thinks that the imbalance of power is itself an evil; but then one has surrendered the discussion of politics.) And the theory of deterrence cannot be responsibly applied to a dictator who has already used weapons whose use is famously not rational.
The Case Against the War by Jonathan Schell (The Nation)
The aim of the Iraq war has never been only to disarm Iraq. George Bush set forth the full aim of his war policy in unmistakable terms on January 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address. It was to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, not only in Iraq but everywhere in the world, through the use of military force. Other possible war aims--to defeat Al Qaeda, to spread democracy--came and went in Administration pronouncements, but this one has remained constant. Stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction is the reason for war given alike to the Security Council, whose inspectors are now searching for such weapons in Iraq, and to the American people, who were advised in the recent State of the Union address to fear "a day of horror like none we have ever known."
The Bush policy of using force to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction met its Waterloo last October, when Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju of North Korea stated that his country has a perfect right to possess nuclear weapons. By any measure, totalitarian North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons is more dangerous than the mere possibility that Iraq is trying to develop them. The North Korean state, which is hard to distinguish from a cult, is also more repressive and disciplined than the Iraqi state, and has caused the death of more of its own people--through starvation. Yet in the weeks that followed the North Korean disclosure, the Administration, in a radical reversal of the President's earlier assessments, sought to argue that the opposite was true.
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