The anti-Israel, and by extension anti-Semitic, attitudes sweeping college campuses is fueled by ignorance and naivete. There are also indications that much of this is due to outside folks coming onto campuses spreading misinformation to fuel this new movement.
Now, this is not to say the Israeli government, especially the current one, is not blameless. It is to Israel’s shame that this lawlessness by Jews has gone unpunished.
The settlers and their supporters in the Israeli government and establishment have committed crimes against Muslims with impunity. The New York Times Magazine on May 16 tied together many of the stories which have appeared over the years about illegal settlements as well as crimes against Muslims which go unpunished, including murder.
Yet none of that has anything to do with the current anti-Jewish hate sweeping across American campuses, hate that has been turned on Jewish American students simply because of their religion.
That is anti-Semitism: Students who turn on their Jewish classmates because they are Jews are anti-Semitic. Their hatred is fueled by their own ignorance and naivete. They have bought into the current story line about how evil Israel is and that it is an illegitimate country.
First, they need to stop attacking their Jewish classmates. Then they need to educate themselves.
Fact: When European Jews started the movement to return to Israel in the late 19th century no Arabs were ever displaced. Those early immigrants bought land the Turkish owners and Arab residents all thought was worthless, and thought the Jews were fools for buying it. Modern agricultural techniques and hard work made the land productive.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up. Not in pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian sources. Look it up in legitimate historical sources.
Fact: The original Palestinians were Jews. They didn’t become Israelis until Israel was founded in 1948. The Muslims became Palestinians in the early 1960s when Yasir Arafat and his compatriots founded the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up.
Fact: Most of today’s Palestinians are the descendants of Arabs who moved into the British mandate of Palestine to take jobs that Jewish businesspeople had created for Jews. The problem was that the British restricted Jewish immigration to placate the Arabs and these businesses needed workers.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up.
Fact: After World War II, the United Nations developed a partition plan for Palestine in the hope of preserving peace. Jewish leaders didn’t like it, but the accepted it. Arab leaders rejected it. Five Arab armies invaded the newly declared nation of Israel, starting the war.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up.
Fact: About 850,000 Arabs fled what is now Israel, the vast majority at the encouragement of the surrounding Arab governments. They were promised that after the Jews were driven into the sea, they could return and claim the Jews’ property.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up.
Fact: Over the next few years, about 850,000 Jews were driven out of Muslim countries in the Mideast. Israel took them in, providing rudimentary housing and working to build an economy. At the time, many Jews were living in tents or cramped apartments lacking bathrooms. The Muslims who fled were locked into refugee camps with no Arab government willing to accept them, despite their need for workers. One Arab official even admitted that the refugees were being kept in camps to use against Israel.
You don’t have to believe me. Look it up.
Israel is not blameless, either for its behavior on the West Bank or in its heavy-handed behavior in Gaza that has led to so many civilian deaths. But Hamas must share much of the blame for what is going on in Gaza. It embedded its military organization in and among civilian areas and launched its unprovoked attack on October 7, 2023, murdering unarmed civilians, including children, and the rapes and torture that happened, and for kidnapping civilians, including children. No country would allow such an attack to go unanswered or should it.
There are those who blame Israel for what happened on October 7. Those people must be the ones who deny Israel’s right to exist. And even if you believe they are right, how does that justify the murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping of peaceful civilians.
Before going after Israel, people should educate themselves about the history of the area and the character of Israel’s Mideast opponents. And they should ask themselves:
Would they rather live in a democracy in a predominantly Jewish majority, or in one of the autocratic Arab nations or under the thumb of Hamas?
As for attacking Jewish American students, there is no excuse for that anti-Semitism. No more than there is an excuse for attacking Muslim students, or any other member of any group, minority, or majority.
For more, go to williamblocher.com
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