J-Street: You Know What American Campuses Need? More Left Wing Anti-Israel Activism.

J Street is joining with the Union of Progressive Zionists to establish a campus outreach program. The left-wing, pro-Israel lobby group announced the project Wednesday, its one-year anniversary “For too long, college campuses have been the scenes of shouting matches rather than constructive and healthy dialogue about what best serves Israel’s and America’s interests,” J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami said. “Faced with the polarization on campus over Israel, students are tuning out and disconnecting from Israel and the Jewish community. J Street’s campus program will provide space for students who support Israel but still want to debate openly and freely the hard questions surrounding the conflict.” The plan was to increase UPZ’s current 15-campus representation “dramatically” over the next year, the announcement said.

Because if J-Street has a specialty, it’s cultivating rigorous debate in a way that promotes Israeli and American interests.

Here’s the thing though: I’m not sure this is all that necessary. The UC Berkeley’s Hillel already lets radical pro-terrorist groups use their building. Their students participate in Israel Apartheid Week. Last Holocaust Memorial Day they threw a dance party. Last Israeli Memorial Day they held a Cinco De Mayo BBQ.

Northern California regional head Ken Kramarz reportedly discouraged pro-Israel demonstrations lest they make Jews look “bloodthirsty,” though the Berkeley Hillel itself had no problem branding orthodox Jews as “scary.” Oh – and after pro-Israel students protested a Norman Finkelstein event over Kramarz’s objections, he banned them from using Hillel facilities until they issued public apologies to the events’ anti-Israel sponsors. Because that’s the best way to incubate pride in one’s Jewish heritage: have Jewish teenagers grovel in front of anti-Semites.

And those are just the Jewish students. The rest of the campus has the Daily Planet as their paper of record, and that outlet is publishing this kind of anti-Semitic cant with obsessive regularity:

One should ask why anti-Semitism has persisted throughout the centuries. Let us go back to 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, went to Babylonia and liberated Jews. One can ask why Jews were enslaved by Babylonians. Also, one can ask why Jews had problem with Egyptians, with Jesus, with Europeans, and in modern times with Germans? The answer, among other things, is their racist attitude that they are the ‘Chosen People.’ Because of this attitude, they do wrong to other people to the point that others turn against them, namely, become anti-Semite if you will.

Anti-Jewish incitement is nowhere near as bad at UPenn. But give their Hillel a couple years. They’re already devoting not insignificant resources to hosting events with the Hamas-applauding student organizations. The title of one talk, which was hosted and catered by Hillel? “Shariah 101: It’s contemporary applications and theological validity.” Because theologically valid sharia – lots of pro-Jewish passages and implications.

But at least we have J-Street to channel all of these “shouting matches” into “constructive and healthy dialogue” about how everything is Israel’s fault.

References and previously after the jump…

References:
* J Street launches campus effort [JTA]
* New J-Street Poll Is Rigged In Particularly Stupid, Obnoxious Ways [MR]
* Of Course: “Pro-Israel” J-Street Is More Anti-Israel Than Israel’s Sworn Enemies, Equates Israeli Self-Defense With Hamas Violence [MR]
* UC Berkeley Hillel–If They Are Not For Israel, Then Who Will Be? [BlueTruth]
* Hillel Student Leaders Participate in Israel Apartheid Week! [IsraPundit]
* Orthodox, secular Jews wage Facebook war [JPost]
* Anti-Semitism in the DP
* Is the DP in its totality an anti-Semitic newspaper?
* University of Pennsylvania Hillel Continues To Work With Hamas Supporting Muslim Student Association [Pipeline News]