Once fairly comfortable with their views on Israel, college students often return home after their first year on campus with ideas that are less charitable towards the Jewish state.  After a year of being exposed to attitudes towards Israel that are increasingly hostile, they often acquire more than a few questions about what they previously took for granted. Few anticipate this negativity when they enter their freshman year and, depending on how prepared they are, some are likely to bend to pressure and end up absorbing much of the anti-Israel hyperbole as fact. Previous generations dealt with varying levels of antisemtisim on campus.  First, there were quotas and later a more subtle bias. Today, however, the pressure is open and relentless, manifesting itself as an anti-Israel prejudice. Students are confronted with false narratives on campus and at times even in the classroom.  Here are a few examples:

– Apartheid week, usually part of a succession of anti-Israel events in the spring, introduces the proposition that Israel imposes a form of South African Apartheid on its non-Jewish minorities. It’s just not so. There are 1.6 million Arabs in Israel, including more than 100,000 Druze. Over 300,000 ‘others’ includes more than 130,000 Christians. Together that equals 25 percent of the total population of Israel — in a Jewish country where even the Jewish population is far from monolithic. Non-Jews serve in the military. They sit in the Knesset. They vote. They share a living standard and health system that is among the best in the world and, along with their Jewish fellow citizens, they have a life span longer than they would in any of the countries surrounding them. They educate their children in ways not offered elsewhere in the Middle East and are happy to share in the safety and tranquility that a strong and secure Israel provides.  Israel’s vibrant democracy encompasses all of its citizens.

– Students often hear that territorial compromise by Israel is the only way to achieve peace.  “Land for peace” is the accepted wisdom on campus, notwithstanding the fact that Israel has continuously acceded to this dicta to her detriment. While every additional compromise tends to make her less secure, 22 Muslim-Arab countries intent on eliminating her remain relentless in pursuit of that goal. The ill-fated Oslo Agreement cost Israel about 2,000 of its citizens to acts of terror, plus the thousands who along with their families were violently ripped apart. Many still bear the burden of lost or maimed family members.  The incessant rocketry falling on Israeli cities today began after Israel willingly withdrew from Gaza in a gesture of ‘land for peace.’

– The insidious accusation of dual loyalty is implied when students are continuously told that the Jewish lobby in America controls what happens in the Middle East and manipulates events in the region to Israel’s benefit. The reality though is that the United States and Israel both act as sovereign nations pursuing their own interests. In so doing they often find their shared values align them more closely with one another than with other nations. They don’t always agree. Besides that, Israel’s vibrant economy provides the United States with a flow of cutting edge technology for its consumer, medical and defense industries.  The U.S., for its part, assists Israel in maintaining a qualitative edge in weaponry that allows her to protect herself against belligerent neighbors who have consistently tested her mettle in a number of wars since her founding. Over 28,000 Israelis have been killed in those wars, defending Israel’s right to exist.

– Campus wisdom also posits that the problems of the Middle East would disappear if only Israel were more compliant to Arab demands.  The ‘right of return’ — or the absolute right of 5-7 million Arab refugees to flood into Israel today — is the cornerstone of this demand. But neither the ‘right of return’ nor  Israel is the problem. The “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” has little to do with Middle East problems. The death spiral in Syria today belies that fact, as did Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1991; the Iraq-Iran war in the 80’s that killed millions; and the hundreds of thousands slaughtered in the Sudan over the last decade. Arab societies have at their center age-old tribal conflicts that create constant conflict between their factions. Religious differences, often central to these disputes, see Sunni battle Shia while Christians and others suffer under the heel of the dominant brand. The shrinking of Egypt’s Christian population today is a repeat of what has happened in every Arab land over the last century. Israel is the only country in the region where the Christian population has grown. None of this has much of anything to do with Israel. A future Middle East without Israel would be as violent and brutal as it is today. Perhaps even more so.

These are just some of the falsehoods that students confront on most campuses. Unable to deal with these arguments, they are liable to assimilate them and acquire a misunderstanding about Israel going forward.  Reconnecting to the community, revisiting their views on Israel and reading up* on the subject all will go far to reinforce a more realistic outlook. There’s no better antidote to this problem than the truth.  Bonding with Hillel on campus or becoming part of Chabad or other Jewish organizations can also help a student deal with these narratives.

 *The Ledger has a limited supply of materials it can share. “Myths and Facts” by Mitchell Bard would be a good place to start. We’d be glad to make it available. We will also publish a short list of other helpful reading in our coming summer reading issue.

—nrg