College communities are incubators for Palestinian freedom at Israel’s peril | opinion
Higher academic institutions in the United States present the world’s greatest opportunity to cultivate the democratic values of free speech and the open exchange of ideas. After all, intellect and creativity drive innovation and social progress. The United States of America and its democracy have attracted millions of immigrants over hundreds of years, given the freedoms that allow people to hone their talents and pursue their dreams.
However, democracy’s free speech also has its downside: it provides an open forum for expressing all opinions and perspectives, and college and university campuses are ground zero for such expressions.
Over the last several decades, Palestinian human rights and advocacy for self-determination and statehood have been promoted with the obliteration of Israel, and this cause has had tremendous traction on American college campuses in the last three decades. College campus activism for this cause has been intimidating and, at times, violent, towards Jewish students, faculty, and administrators.
Faculty, administrators and alumni (many with influence and high profiles in Ivy League and state university institutions) are also fueling hostility towards Israel and world Jewry. These “passive” activists have the financial and social influence that is able to spread the propaganda and institutionalize the cause in the Western world.
Jews are rightfully frightened and alarmed: they have seen this before with the Nazi Party’s rise to power. Today they are similarly harassed, ostracized, and physically attacked by both neo-Nazis on the far right, and Palestinian activists and their supporters (now including the Black Lives Matter Movement) on the far left of American politics. Non-Jewish faculty and administrators, while not violent, have participated in passive acts of aggression, such as sitting on the sidelines in silence, or if they speak out publicly, they avoid condemnation of the violent behaviors imposed on Jewish people.
Hamas and Hezbollah are representatives and soldiers of Islamic extremists who have sabotaged the humanitarian crisis of the Palestinians and planted their representatives on college campuses nationwide and around the world in democratic nations. They have strategically leveraged the freedom of speech afforded by Western democracy to create an illusion.
American academia has scholars who have bought into this illusion. Rather than take a moderate position that sees the goodwill of Israel and the rational reasons for why Israel has been forced to vacillate between diplomacy and military force to deal with terrorism, they have inspired young American students to see Israel (and in most cases implied the Jewish people as well) as evil doers.
Hamas promotion of the Palestinian humanitarian cause is a sham: they and their Islamic leaders put the Palestinians in harm’s way to further their hegemony. There is a well-documented track record of how Islamic extremists and financiers have undermined Palestinian self-determination and Middle East peace. The 1979 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, Israel’s Menachem Begin and President Carter were undermined when Sadat was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood and he was replaced by an Islamic extremist Hosni Mubarak.
Since that time there were other diplomatic attempts for peace and two-state resolution: the Oslo Accords of the 1990s were a highlight during President Clinton’s term in office, and this was derailed by the rise of Hamas and their takeover of Gaza. Many political analysts see the Hamas attack of this past week as another deliberate measure by Islamic extremists to upset the Abraham Accords progress made with Israel normalizing relations with several Arab nations (including Saudi Arabia, an arch-enemy of Iran).
Arab-Israelis have also had representation in Israel’s parliament (the Knesset), and the Israeli military retreated from the West Bank and Gaza in goodwill to give the Palestinians a chance at self-rule. Israel’s litany of diplomatic attempts and actions is not one of an oppressive regime.
Conversely, extremist rule by Hamas in Gaza and its agenda has moved the Israeli government to the far right. They are fed up trying to negotiate with terrorists and their posing as diplomats. Hamas has eliminated all democratic processes in Gaza - they have deliberately not held elections since 2006 to keep their authoritative power intact. They torture and kill Palestinians who oppose them. Now, the world can see Hamas's barbaric hold on the Palestinians as the Gazan War progresses. Free Palestine also calls for the boycott, sanction, and divestiture (BDS) of Israel and its destruction.
To truly free the Palestinian people, they must be freed from Islamic terrorists, their Iranian leadership, and dark money financiers who profit from this terror.
American academia must lead the cry against Islamic terrorism, protect their Jews against violence and harassment, and defend Israel’s right to exist in peace. Otherwise, they, too, have become a proxy for Islamic Jihad, which will take down Western democracy.
Allison Siegelman is a York County resident who has a masters in public policy and administration. She has been a lobby leader for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and a policy advocate for Holocaust education.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Colleges incubators for Palestinian freedom at Israel’s peril
