The fact that Israel is one of America’s staunchest and most powerful allies in the world, and the only democracy within a thousand miles in any direction, is too often brushed aside by its detractors.
When Israel was a new nation state of some four million plus citizens, vulnerable and surrounded by a billion neighbors vowing its extinction, Israel was the darling of the Left Liberal community. The Six Day War, during which Israel defeated multiple Arab armies poised to attack and annihilate the country, created a dramatic shift in the Left Intelligentia’s perception of Israel. In one fell swoop, Israel, (comprised of about eight thousand square miles or a tad smaller than New Jersey) was perceived as a vast super power imposing its will on its neighbors. The world cut Israel a little slack in nineteen sixty-nine, as it was intrigued by the thwarting of De Gaulle’s Israel arms embargo. The Israeli navy spirited five, paid for, Sa’ar class missile boats out of France’s Cherbourg Harbor. Similarly, the world heaped transitory praise on Israel, in nineteen seventy-six, when it brazenly and brilliantly freed airplane passengers held hostage in Idi Amin’s Uganda by Palestinian terrorists. For all of Israel’s extraordinary achievements, often benefitting the country’s most publically vilifying it: desert farming, water purification systems, solar energy innovations and a hi-tech industry second only to Silicon Valley, anti-Semitism continues to regularly bleed through the veneer of universal acceptance.
The challenge for ameliorating virulent, well-organized campus anti-Semitism, perhaps unleashed by middle east events, must be met by a variety of firm and concerted actions. As one action, the organized American Jewish community should consider the formation of a Jewish “Peace Corps” vetted, trained and educated to counter the demonic hatred of campus anti-Semitic and anti-Zionistic propaganda. In addition to effectively matching current campus demonstrations in size, scope and fervor, The Corps should begin by encouraging ongoing events offering an opportunity for enlightened dialogue on divergent and equally valid viewpoints regarding the middle east. No one side has the “right” answer. College campuses must become the arena for enlightened, informed and rational dialogue not one-sided and vehement accusations and threats. The new Jewish “Peace Corps”, to be organized on all American college campuses, will be a step in that direction.