The Authority of Perspective

Worse than Gaza

By Ben Harris · March 25, 2009

That's the impression of veteran Jerusalem Post correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh, who recently wrapped up a speaking tour of American college campuses. Toameh says that the non-Arab, non-Muslim pro-Palestinian students are more strident, less tolerant of opposing viewpoints, and more fixated on their hatred of Israel than Arab Muslims on campus. The situation, he writes, is more hostile and uncivil than what he has encountered on Palestinian campuses.

Toameh writes:

If these folks really cared about the Palestinians, they would be campaigning for good government and for the promotion of values of democracy and freedom in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Their hatred for Israel and what it stands for has blinded them to a point where they no longer care about the real interests of the Palestinians, namely the need to end the anarchy and lawlessness, and to dismantle the armed gangs that are responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent Palestinians over the past few years.

The majority of these activists openly admit that they have never visited Israel or the Palestinian territories. They don't know -- and don't want to know -- that Jews and Arabs here are still doing business together and studying together and meeting with each other on a daily basis because they are destined to live together in this part of the world. They don't want to hear that despite all the problems life continues and that ordinary Arab and Jewish parents who wake up in the morning just want to send their children to school and go to work before returning home safely and happily.

What is happening on the U.S. campuses is not about supporting the Palestinians as much as it is about promoting hatred for the Jewish state. It is not really about ending the "occupation" as much as it is about ending the existence of Israel.