Nov 5, 2023 01:03 AM
https://newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/...el-america
INTRO: It was no surprise that the U.S. government threw its support behind Israel following the terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens on October 7. President Biden quickly defended Israel, declared himself to be a Zionist, and visited the country within days of the attacks.
Republicans and Democrats lined up in near-unanimous support for the Jewish state, pledging moral, political, and military support for Israel’s expected retaliation against strongholds in Gaza. This has been a long-standing pattern since the United States formed its alliance with Israel in the 1960s, and has been sustained since that time through a series of wars and terrorist attacks in the region.
But few expected the eruption of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses and large cities across America in the days and weeks following those attacks. Students on campuses from Harvard and Yale to Michigan and Berkeley marched and signed petitions in support of the Palestinian cause, calling for the elimination of the state of Israel, while ignoring the wanton killing of more than 1,400 Israelis in the attacks.
Thousands took to the streets with the same message in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and other cities. A dozen or so members of Congress, nearly all progressive Democrats and affiliated with the left-wing “squad” in the House of Representatives, voted against a resolution to support Israel in the escalating conflict.
In many cases, the demonstrators denounced anyone sympathetic to Israel, including especially Jewish students and residents, as murderers and oppressors. In New York, the police advised Jewish residents to remain indoors and out of view during a scheduled anti-Israel protest in Brooklyn on October 28—an astounding development in a city with the largest Jewish population in the world.
Jewish students on elite campuses expressed bewilderment that friends and fellow students had so suddenly turned on them in the wake of the savage attacks on October 7. They did not realize that supporters of the Palestinian cause here and around the world blame them (along with the U.S. government) for the troubles in the region.
The eruption of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish movements should serve as a wake-up call for Israel, and for America as well. It has already done so for many wealthy alumni and business leaders who have criticized university presidents and pulled back donations in response both to the anti-Israel demonstrations on campus and the lukewarm responses of academic leaders to the terrorist attacks.
Still, unless something bold and long-lasting is done to counter those movements, they are likely to grow in influence on campus, in government, and among voters in the years ahead...
[...] . . . The same poll suggested that support for Israel versus the Palestinians varies by age groups, with younger Americans now less likely to side with Israel. [...] This is the age cohort that has gone through American colleges over the past few decades while imbibing an assortment of anti-American and anti-Israel points of view taught in courses and promoted in other campus programs.
[...] It would be a good thing if those newly energized business leaders, instead of simply withholding donations from their universities, would turn their attention to the long-running challenge of returning these institutions to their core purposes—that is, genuine learning and understanding in an environment that encourages rational debate, discussion, and pluralism.
This does not mean that debates over Israel and the Palestinians should be banned, or that one or another side of that debate should be suppressed, but that they should proceed in a rational manner absent the bullying of Jewish students or rote defenses of terrorism that have taken place in recent weeks.
It also means that ideological and activist causes now embedded in the academic curriculum should give way to less ideological forms of instruction... (MORE - details)
INTRO: It was no surprise that the U.S. government threw its support behind Israel following the terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens on October 7. President Biden quickly defended Israel, declared himself to be a Zionist, and visited the country within days of the attacks.
Republicans and Democrats lined up in near-unanimous support for the Jewish state, pledging moral, political, and military support for Israel’s expected retaliation against strongholds in Gaza. This has been a long-standing pattern since the United States formed its alliance with Israel in the 1960s, and has been sustained since that time through a series of wars and terrorist attacks in the region.
But few expected the eruption of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses and large cities across America in the days and weeks following those attacks. Students on campuses from Harvard and Yale to Michigan and Berkeley marched and signed petitions in support of the Palestinian cause, calling for the elimination of the state of Israel, while ignoring the wanton killing of more than 1,400 Israelis in the attacks.
Thousands took to the streets with the same message in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and other cities. A dozen or so members of Congress, nearly all progressive Democrats and affiliated with the left-wing “squad” in the House of Representatives, voted against a resolution to support Israel in the escalating conflict.
In many cases, the demonstrators denounced anyone sympathetic to Israel, including especially Jewish students and residents, as murderers and oppressors. In New York, the police advised Jewish residents to remain indoors and out of view during a scheduled anti-Israel protest in Brooklyn on October 28—an astounding development in a city with the largest Jewish population in the world.
Jewish students on elite campuses expressed bewilderment that friends and fellow students had so suddenly turned on them in the wake of the savage attacks on October 7. They did not realize that supporters of the Palestinian cause here and around the world blame them (along with the U.S. government) for the troubles in the region.
The eruption of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish movements should serve as a wake-up call for Israel, and for America as well. It has already done so for many wealthy alumni and business leaders who have criticized university presidents and pulled back donations in response both to the anti-Israel demonstrations on campus and the lukewarm responses of academic leaders to the terrorist attacks.
Still, unless something bold and long-lasting is done to counter those movements, they are likely to grow in influence on campus, in government, and among voters in the years ahead...
[...] . . . The same poll suggested that support for Israel versus the Palestinians varies by age groups, with younger Americans now less likely to side with Israel. [...] This is the age cohort that has gone through American colleges over the past few decades while imbibing an assortment of anti-American and anti-Israel points of view taught in courses and promoted in other campus programs.
[...] It would be a good thing if those newly energized business leaders, instead of simply withholding donations from their universities, would turn their attention to the long-running challenge of returning these institutions to their core purposes—that is, genuine learning and understanding in an environment that encourages rational debate, discussion, and pluralism.
This does not mean that debates over Israel and the Palestinians should be banned, or that one or another side of that debate should be suppressed, but that they should proceed in a rational manner absent the bullying of Jewish students or rote defenses of terrorism that have taken place in recent weeks.
It also means that ideological and activist causes now embedded in the academic curriculum should give way to less ideological forms of instruction... (MORE - details)