23 Nisan 5771,
So last night on my campus a debate was held that drew 100+ people. Take what you will from this number - our college supposedly has anything between 12.5k to 15k students roaming its hallowed halls, which one could then conclude this is a rather small fraction. On the other hand we are also a commuter college, so to draw a crowd of three digits (and one where food is non prominently featured) is no small accomplishment.
Was it the subject matter then? The implications of the answer chill. The name of the debate was "Is Israel an Apartheid State?". That alone was off-setting to me for it already implies bias in my mind, an implicit/explicit slant that immediately grants one side an offensive posture and another the defensive. Political debates (and how was this one not?) would be thought less than objective if they were similarly renamed (e.g.: "Is Kennedy more Charming Than Nixon?", "Is Reagan a Great Communicator?", "Is McCain Just Bush 2.0?")
So that the debate wasn't called "Middle East Conflicts" or even "Is Israel an Apartheid State and is Hezbollah a Terrorist Organization?" kinda clued me in. Here's some other background you should know about my campus. It has a strong anti-Israel sentiment vibrating in the air, caused in part by a heavy and aggressive socialist presence and a distinct lack of any countering organized Jewish voice. Now not all socialists are anti-Israel although many American socialists that I have heard and read are, and it has been my experience that while not all anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitic, a lot of it slips into that nasty realm.
Also, it disturbs me greatly that this anti-Israel stance is rarely nuanced. Critics never seem to say, okay, let's talk about the oppression of the settlements (where, IMO, one might bring up the apartheid comparison) or the way a fundamentalist government seems to generate and justify continued human rights violations. Instead they demand - loudly, argumentatively - that the entire state of Israel either be disbanded or overrun via a one-state solution.
Of course, this only makes sense from a revolutionary point of view, because if you do argue from a nuanced p.o.v. then you have to allow that your opponent has some worthwhile aspects, and these critics will never admit to that. It is not in their scripts (and yes, they repeat just as many regurgitated bullet points ad-nauseam as the other side). But then, scripts are not about discussions but rather debates and demands. They often say that they refuse to dialogue because of what they see as the inherent imbalance of the power dynamics between the two parties. So: discussion bad, but missile and bombings good! (One activist once told me that in his opinion there was "an acceptable level of violence" against Israel.)
(I do want to point out that my roommate, who is a funny person and experienced socialist activist also takes this stand, but she and some others have made room for talk and to hear my thoughts. It is my opinion though that they are not what drives today's anti-Israel engine.)
Then there is the invisibility of any Jewish voice, pro-Israel or otherwise. Oh, we have a Hillel group but its members don't always know when and where events are. It has tried to mount a pro-Israel event here or there but notices were sparse and generally unorganized. In fact, in our student centers the socialists made sure to mount a pro-Palestinian sign right over the Hillel desk space. That kind of intimidation sets what passes for discourse, which of course is no discourse at all. It is hard if not impossible to strike up discussions in a setting of fear and intimidation (and yes, when being pro-Israel automatically makes one a "Zionist racist piece of shit" is a threatening strong-arm tactic worthy of Mussolini. Irony is obviously not appreciated at my school.)
* * *
I am a student here who also is a converting Jew with pro-Israel yet anti-occupation sentiments. Do I feel guilty about not being there last night? Yes. Should I have gone? Would it have made a difference? Don't know. Will I be taking down my Israel flag from my desk where I am a student coordinator any time soon? No. Will I be stating my displeasure to the organizers today? Definitely.
But is this enough?
I do not know. And I think that bothers me most of all.
