Israel on Campus: Enough With the "Dialogue"

Hat tip The Jewish Press


Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has an interesting piece in The Jewish Press, which says that it is time to discard the efforts of pro-Israel folks on college campuses to engage in dialogue with the anti-Israel forces. I want to post this though I need to rush off to work. Later in the day, I will add some comments.

http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/america-rabbi-shmuley-boteach/lessons-for-israel-on-campus-from-scarlett-johansson/2014/02/04/0/?print

OK, I'm back.

What I want to add here is that those students who care about Israel are wasting their time trying to dialogue with the pro-Palestinian forces on campus. First of all, they are ideologically driven and in many case, there is a religious component to this effort to delegitimize Israel on American campuses. Israel is a Jewish state located in a sea of Muslim nations who will never accept Israel's right to exist in that region. That land is considered to be Muslim land and it must revert to Muslim control.

In short, there is nothing to discuss. You are not going to change their minds.

Furthermore, these misguided ventures like the Olive Tree Initiative, which was started at UC Irvine, are nothing more than a collective fig leaf designed to sway Jewish and non-committed students to the Palestinian point of view.

So I think Boteach's argument makes sense. If you want to present Israel's case on campus, bring in your own experts to counter the views of people like Omar Barghouti, Ben White, and all the rest of the pro-Palestinian propagandists. Put on the debates and forget about the dialogue.