Israel Campus Beat - January 15, 2006

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The officials added that the critical parameters - pulse, blood pressure and body temperature - are encouraging and stable. Hadassah sources expressed general concern over Sharon's state, but remain unfazed by the fact that he has yet to open his eyes. "Some patients wake up after a week, and some wake up after several months," one doctor said. (Ynet News) Read More. Secretary Rice on Security and the Palestinian Elections I welcome [the] statement by Acting Prime Minister Olmert that he will recommend to the Israeli cabinet that the Government of Israel allow voting by Palestinians, including those in East Jerusalem, in accordance with existing precedent. It remains the view of the United States that there should be no place in the political process for groups or individuals who refuse to renounce terror and violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and disarm....To participate in a peace process of Israelis and Palestinians, the Palestinian partner must at least accept Israel's right to exist. (State Department) Read More. Israel Wants West to Deal More Urgently With Iran by Steven Erlanger Israeli officials are worried that politicians are focusing on estimates of when Iran might actually have a bomb - rather than concentrating on the "point of no return," perhaps within the next year, when they argue Iran may gain enough technical knowledge to make the fissile material needed for a weapon. (New York Times) Read More. Columbia Dean Admits Taking Saudi Junket by Alec Magnet Months before Columbia University dean Lisa Anderson was named to a special committee convened to investigate student complaints about professors' hostility to Israel, the dean took a trip to Saudi Arabia that she acknowledges was "largely" paid for by Saudi Aramco, the kingdom-owned oil company. "I think it's pretty suspicious that the dean... would go tour Saudi Aramco facilities," a junior at Columbia College, Bari Weiss, said. (New York Sun) Read More. Weapons Smuggling into Gaza Rising by Yaakov Katz Since the disengagement from Gush Katif, there has been a significant increase in the amount of weapons and explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip, Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet told the Knesset last week. "The amount of weapons and explosives smuggled into the Gaza Strip from Egypt has grown drastically, by more than 300 percent," he said. "If before the disengagement they smuggled in 200 to 300 rifles a month, they are now smuggling in close to 3,000." (Jerusalem Post) Read More. Dalai Lama to Visit Israel by Anat Barshkovsky The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist spiritual leader, will visit Israel for one week in the middle of February to take part in the events marking the 100th anniversary of late Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's immigration to Israel. (Ynet News) Read More. Study: Israeli Patriotism Intact Despite Intifada by Roee Nahmias Five years of Palestinian violence did little to dent the national sentiment in Israel, a recent study conducted by Tel Aviv University showed. According to the university's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Israelis have shown a remarkable capability of withstanding hardships in the last five years of the intifada as optimism and stability pervaded Israel. (Ynet News) Read More. Back to Top Heart of a Nation by Kevin Peraino, Dan Ephron and Jeffrey Bartholet Newsweek asked Sharon in 2003 what it would take to bring about peace. "First, it needs Arab recognition that it is the birthright of the Jewish people to have a Jewish state in the homeland of the Jewish people," he answered. "That might be regarded as the end of the conflict. It [also] needs strong and serious leadership that can make those painful compromises on areas which are the cradle of the Jewish people. That's what I will try to do." He had started down that path. But Israelis may never know exactly where he was heading, or if anyone else can lead them there. (Newsweek) Read More. Where Is the Arab Sharon? by Tim Hames The dilemma for Israel and the peace process is not that Mr. Sharon cannot continue to serve as prime minister. It is that there is no equivalent to Mr. Sharon in the Arab world. There is no one willing to acknowledge publicly that the Palestinians cannot have all that they might want, just as Israelis cannot have everything they might desire. There is no one prepared to state what is absolutely obvious, namely that any return to the boundaries of 1967 is a ludicrous notion. (Times-UK) Read More. Is the Road Map's Moment Gone? by Jim Hoagland Law and order have disappeared in the Gaza territory since the Israeli withdrawal. Kidnappings and gunfights, not campaign rallies, are the tools of electioneering there. With Sharon in power, the odds on the "road map" diplomatic process delivering the democratic Palestinian state that Bush and Sharon conditionally endorse were slim. Without Sharon in power, the odds drop to virtually zero. (Washington Post) Read More. The Great Obstacle to Progress - Palestinian Capabilities by Fareed Zakaria The big story that no one wants to admit yet is that the Palestinian Authority has collapsed, Gaza has turned into a failed state, and there is no single Palestinian political organization that could create order in the territories and negotiate with Israel. Palestinian dysfunction is now the main limiting factor on any progress in the peace process. Gaza lacks a single authority, a functioning government, and as a result is in a state of anarchy. This is not the model that people had hoped for. (Newsweek)) Read More. We've Met the Enemy; and Sharon Is Us by Mona Eltahawy If hatred for Sharon were based solely on the number of Arabs he has killed, then he would come in a poor second or third to Jordan's late King Hussein for what he did during "Black September" in 1970, and Syria's late President Hafez Assad for the thousands more killed in Hama in 1982. And when it comes to the massacres at Sabra and Shatila in 1982, with which Sharon's name has become synonymous, one must wonder why Arab anger focuses on his role only, while rarely if ever mentioned is the role played by the Lebanese militias that carried out the slaughter. (Beirut Daily Star) Read More. The Bush Administration, Hamas, and the PA Elections by Robert Satloff The Bush administration, which has taken such a praiseworthy stand against terrorism in general, has decided to bless an election that will legitimize Hamas, one of the world's worst terrorist groups. Bush has embraced the power of elections to transform politics even in places thought to be inhospitable to democracy. By applying the lesson it drew - with some justification - from the experience of courageous Iraqi and Afghan voters, the Bush team has extolled the "pothole" theory of elections, the idea that even extreme radicals can be transformed into civic-minded do-gooders when they have to face the electorate. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Read More. "Twin Brothers": European Anti-Semitism and Anti-Americanism by Andrei S. Markovits In the new anti-Semitism, hostility to Israel is directed against the existence of an entire country in its capacity as a "collective Jew." It is mainly, among other things, a consequence of anti-Americanism. The left's anti-Semitism, rather than the right's conventional version of this hatred, comprises the key ingredient of anti-Semitism's current European existence. Nazifying Israel has the objective of delegitimizing Israel by associating it with the symbol of evil par excellence. (JCPA) Read More. Back to Top UCLA's International Institute Receives $1 Million for Israel Studies Endowed Chair UCLA's International Institute has received a pledge of $1 million from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation to endow a permanent chair in Israel studies, which will enhance the institute's role as a leading center for research and education on Israel. (UCLA News) Read More. Columbia: Massad's Bullying, Anti-Israel Stance Led Student To Drop Out by Alec Magnet A former Columbia University graduate student, Anat Malkin, is alleging that Joseph Massad, who emerged as a leading subject in the investigation of a series of student complaints at the school, bullied her in class and contributed to a biased, anti-Israel atmosphere that led her to withdraw from her Middle Eastern studies program after two years. (New York Sun) Read More. DePauw Junior among 16 Selected for Mission to Israel DePauw University junior Elisabeth W. Evans is among "a group of sixteen active campus leaders and two congressional aides (traveling) to Israel for an up-close look at the issues surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to learn the history of the modern Jewish state," according to an announcement today from the Anti-Defamation League. (DePauw University News) Read More. Georgetown: Controversial Palestinian Group Coming to Area by Eric Fingerhut The Palestine Solidarity Movement's annual conference is coming to Georgetown University next month, and the school's pro-Israel students are ready. In fact, the Georgetown Israel Alliance (GIA) had been planning a major pro-Israel initiative on the Northwest Washington campus for months, well before anyone knew the PSM would be coming to D.C. (Washington Jewish Week) Read More. See also Students to Host Palestinian Summit by Stephen Santulli (The Hoya) Harvard: Sharon's Stroke Shakes Israel by Evan H. Jacobs Within the Harvard community, there was uncertainty about what the end of Sharon's tenure would mean for Israeli politics and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, along with hope that his stroke would not be a major setback for either. "The Israeli democracy has dealt with worse losses," said Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Avi Matalon, who is from Israel. "The momentum is with the moderate center." (Crimson) Read More. UMass Sends Students Off by Jacob Sugerman Among the scores of students leaving for Israel Jan. 9 as part of the Birthright Israel program, more than 50 - the largest contingent sent by any college in the state - will be coming from a school not known for its Jewish involvement: the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. (Jewish Advocate) Read More. Penn State: Spanier Leads Trip to Middle East by Kevin Horan Despite Penn State's suspension of study abroad programs to Israel due to travel warnings, Penn State President Graham Spanier will lead a social service organization's mission to the Middle Eastern country this summer. Sophomore Vicki Korchagin, Penn State Students for Israel treasurer, said she thinks it is great that Spanier is making the trip because it will allow him to re-evaluate university policy regarding study abroad in Israel. (Digital Collegian) Read More. San Francisco State: Indian Scholar Visits to Study U.S. Jewish Politics A broadcast journalist from India spent the fall semester in SFSU's Jewish Studies Program on a Fulbright fellowship to work on his doctoral dissertation. The topic: U.S. policies on Israel formulated by Republican presidents and the emergence of the Republican Jewish Coalition since 1985. (SF State News) Read More. Tulane: KC Native Meets Sharon Just Before He Falls Ill by Barbara Bayer On Jan. 1 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon greeted Kansas Citian Jessica Bodker at a gathering of American students. Among them were two Jewish students from Kansas City, Jessica Bodker and Hannah Malashock, who were supposed to begin their freshman year in September at Tulane University in New Orleans. But what started as a disaster turned into one of the best experiences of each of the girls' lives. (Kansas City Jewish Chronicle) Read More. Israel Celebrates Hindi Diwas with Fanfare The International Hindi Diwas was celebrated in Tel Aviv with a lot of fanfare, drawing hundreds of India enthusiasts with students at the Tel Aviv University participating in a range of activities in Hindi lasting several hours. (India Daily) Read More. Reacquainting Students with Israel by Wendy Margolin As American universities reopen the doors to Israel study abroad programs, the individuals and groups who advocated reinstating the programs are working to foster student interest in them. Aaron Goldberg, associate director of Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), says the coalition's goal is to raise the number of American students studying on abroad programs in Israel to 6,000. (Chicago Jewish Community Online) Read More. Fair Aims to Attract Canadians to Israeli Universities by Janice Arnold Martin Levine was having a hard time finding Montreal students interested in studying at an Israeli university, even when offered a subsidized year. The organizers have no estimates on how many Canadian students study in Israeli universities, but as far as Levine is concerned, it is too few. He feels there is no reason that Jewish students should not consider an Israeli university an option equal to an American school, for example, if they are thinking of studying outside Montreal. (Canadian Jewish News) Read More. Israeli Student Named the World's Best Debater by Lior El-Chai Haifa graduate philosophy student 25-year-old Anat Gelber has won the World Debate Championship held in Ireland this week and was crowned as "the world's best debater." (Ynet News) Read More. Back to Top Bologna: Trendy Politics at Europe's Oldest University by David Beraka I spoke Italian well enough to detect overt bias against the state of Israel during lectures. My professor and many other academics suffer from the mental disorder of Palestinianism - an obsession with and hatred of Israel that disguises itself by promulgating Palestinian rights as the major, sometimes only, humanitarian cause of our time. The hypocrisy of these partisans knows no bounds. (Campus Watch) Read More. Central Florida: Door Doesn't Close on Sharon's Visionary Thinking by John C. Bersia The sunset of the Sharon era does not close the door on progressive thinking. Nor will his absence at the negotiating table necessarily cause peace to remain elusive. New leaders - potentially great ones - wait in the wings, eager for Israel's democracy to grant them an opportunity to try their hands at pressing problems. (Orlando Sentinel) Read More. Think Israel...Yes Please! by Dirk Forsyth I looked up and to my shock I discovered a giant poster of a model on a moonlit beach, the waves lapping at her thighs and the buildings behind her lit up like any cosmopolitan Mediterranean city. Tel-Aviv! I understand that many people will not be best pleased to see the Holy Land being advertised to what some would say are a less than 'holy' clientele. However I doubt those who would object would even notice if we had an annual influx of clubbers to Tel Aviv. (Jerusalem Post) Read More. Florida: Israeli Actions Not Cause of Unrest by David Drescher The violence I have been seeing, along with most Americans, is the public slaughter of innocent men, women and children in venues such as pizzerias, nightclubs and buses. The oppression I have seen includes repeated attempts by every major Middle Eastern Arab nation to destroy Israel since it became a state by United Nations mandate in 1948. (Alligator) Read More. See also Jews Deserve to Keep Israeli Homeland by Jeffrey Benedix, President, Gators for Israel (Alligator) Harvard: A New Bulldozer - Editorial Of all the strengths that Sharon displayed during his decades in Israeli politics, willingness to compromise never was among them. And yet, as we contemplate Sharon's sudden exit from political life, triggered by a massive stroke from which the chance of a full recovery appears slim, we worry about the consequences for a peace process that, largely as a result of his actions, has steadily gained momentum in recent months. (Crimson) Read More. Princeton: 'Munich' Avoids Controversy by Raymond Zhong In "Munich," Steven Spielberg has mastered the art of talking a lot and saying very little; it's a nervous, fidgety piece of work from a filmmaker who clearly has something to say but is hesitant to say it straightforwardly. Spielberg's film is not pro-Israel, pro-Palestine or sympathetic to both. Instead, it tries to mask its underlying insecurity by burying it with the worst form of political correctness - balance. (Princetonian) Read More. AJC Booklet Offers Strategies to Counter Jewish Malaise on College Campuses Indifference among Jewish students to their Judaism and to Israel underlies the challenges they face on campuses when confronting incidents of hostility from other students, or professors, concludes leading Jewish scholars in a new American Jewish Committee report, "American Jewry and the College Campus: Best of Times or Worst of Times?" (American Jewish Committee) Read More. Back to Top Congressman: U.S. Should Follow Israeli Lead in Hi-Tech Support by Yigal Grayeff Congressman Tim Ryan (Ohio) had never been to Israel until he arrived last week. Now, after just a few days of observing the country's hi-tech sector, he is considering introducing initiatives in Congress to force the U.S. government to imitate its Israeli counterpart in the provision of support for start-up companies. Ryan is the head of a delegation of businessman and public officials from the city of Akron. (Jerusalem Post) Read More. American Immigrant Receives Bronfman Prize Dr. Alon Tal has been awarded the Bronfman Prize for his environmental activism. Tal, an American immigrant, is one of Israel's leading environmental activists and a founder of the Man, Nature and Law organization. He is also Chairman of the 'Life and Environment' Organization and has received the prize for raising environmental awareness in Israel and in the diaspora. (Ynet News) Read More. Beer Sheva: Tomato Extract May Help Lower Blood Pressure by Amy Norton Researchers in Israel found that a daily dose of tomato extract helped lower blood pressure among 31 men and women with mild hypertension. On average, their systolic pressure - the top number in a blood-pressure reading - dropped 10 points, while their diastolic pressure, or bottom number, dipped four points, both statistically significant differences. People who have mild high blood pressure or who have high-normal blood pressure would be the "ideal candidates" for treatment with the extract, said study co-author Dr. Esther Paran of the University of the Negev in Beer Sheva. (Reuters) Read More. Back to Top Maryland Basketball Star Now Israeli "Child Prodigy" by Jerry Mittleman It's the rare and lucky team that finds a true NBA caliber player on its roster. That's the case with Maccabi Rishon and their 21-year-old point guard John Gilchrist, who, according to team coach Guy Goodes, has "unlimited potential." Gilchrist's game seems to be maturing from week to week. Gilchrist is bouncing back from troubled times at Maryland University last year, which probably prevented him from being in the NBA today. (Ha'aretz) Read More. Back to Top In Hasbara Battle for Israel, Organization Turns to Comic Books by Chanan Tigay If William Rubin has his way, Ben-Gurion - along with Moses, Theodor Herzl, Golda Meir, Ariel Sharon and a host of other historic Israeli heroes and heroines - will grace the pages of a new graphic novel set to tell the story of Israel from the Bible to statehood and right up through the present day. That's where HOMELAND: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, comes in. (JTA) Read More. A Hebrew-Speaking Hamlet Comes to Washington by Viva Press American audiences have probably never heard Hamlet's classic "To be or not to be" soliloquy performed in Hebrew. But they'll have that unique chance next year when Israel's prestigious theater company, the Cameri, performs William Shakespeare's classic tragedy as part of the Shakespeare in Washington festival in Washington, D.C. (Israel21c) Read More. Congressman Barney Frank Takes Pride in Israeli Democracy by Daphna Berman Congressman Barney Frank, who was in Israel for the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, is the most prominent openly gay politician in the U.S. Frank points to Israel Defense Forces policy on homosexuality as a goal for the American armed forces. The fact that Israel serves as a refuge for gay Palestinians, Frank says, should be a rallying point for the country's democracy and openness. (Ha'aretz) Read More. Back to Top Was Sharon Seeking a "Third Way" in Israeli Politics? The Fence-Plus-Unilateral-Withdrawal Strategy by Charles Krauthammer For a generation, Israeli politics have offered two alternatives. The Left said: We have to negotiate peace with the Palestinians. The Right said: There's no one to talk to because they don't want to make peace. The Left was given its chance with the 1993 Oslo peace accords. They proved a fraud and a deception. With the Left then discredited, Israel turned to the Right, electing Sharon in 2001. But the Right's idea of hanging onto the territories indefinitely was untenable. Sharon's genius was to seize upon and begin implementing a third way. With a negotiated peace illusory and a Greater Israel untenable, he argued that the only way to security was a unilateral redrawing of Israel's boundaries. The success of this fence-plus-unilateral-withdrawal strategy is easily seen in the collapse of the intifada. The Sharon idea of a smaller but secure and demographically Jewish Israel garnered broad public support, marginalized the old parties of the Left and Right, and was on the verge of electoral success that would establish a new political center to carry on this strategy. (Washington Post) Read More. The Fictitious 'Third Way' by Caroline Glick The myth of Sharon and his leadership is that over the past two years he redefined the center of Israeli politics. It is true that Sharon restructured the political map of Israel over the past two years. But he did not do so by blazing a new path, with a new vision for Israeli politics, society and security. Sharon redefined Israel's political map by embracing the Israeli Left. And in so doing, as one top military official dolefully put it to me in November, "Sharon brought post-Zionism into the mainstream of Israeli public discourse." While the myth of Sharon as a centrist is being propagated by conservative analysts whose sympathies until Sharon's political transformation lay consistently with the Israeli Right, the people who seem most ready to acknowledge the truth are the Leftist commentators. Sharon's rhetorical shift to the Left was followed by his policy shift in the same direction when, against the backdrop of ever-increasing Palestinian radicalization. Sharon's personal prestige gave the Left a new lease on life, split the Right, delegitimized his political camp both domestically and internationally and weakened Israel's party system. (Jerusalem Post) Read More. Sharon's Strategic Legacy for Israel: Competing Perspectives by Dan Diker Some Israeli opinion-makers, seeking to define Sharon's political legacy, are determined to transform him into a political dove due to his unilateral disengagement plan that pulled Israel out of Gaza. However, a careful examination of Sharon's major speeches and interviews since he first proposed disengagement suggests the very opposite. Sharon saw the disengagement plan as a mechanism for trading land with a dense Palestinian population, like the Gaza Strip, in exchange for land that was critical for Israel's future security. Sharon has repeated the traditional "defensible borders" position, and has reiterated in various interviews and public statements since the Gaza disengagement that Israel would retain close to half of the West Bank. With Sharon's political career at an end, Israel is forced to rely on the statements of Sharon's advisors and the political inheritors of his new Kadima party. Unfortunately, Sharon's legacy can be too easily tailored to fit a political perspective that Sharon himself never adopted. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Read More. Back to Top For Daily News Updates, see the Daily Alert To subscribe to Israel Campus Beat, click here. To manage your subscription to the Israel Campus Beat, click here. To unsubscribe from Israel Campus Beat, click here.