Netanyahu and Student Protests
Donn M. Kurtz II
The anti-Israeli sentiments, and sometimes antisemitism, being expressed by American college students can be attributed in large part to Benjamin Netanyahu and his policies.
Having come to office a second time in 2009, he has been the face of Israeli politics for more than 15 years. The vast majority of undergraduates are under 25 years old which means that Netanyahu has been in power since they were in elementary school. Netanyahu's Israel is the only Israel they know.
If they know anything about this part of the world that knowledge was accumulated in the last few months. In all probability the Gaza war was their first serious exposure to Palestinian-Israeli politics. That is not unusual.
When I was teaching Middle Eastern politics most of my students began the semester knowing little or nothing about the region. That's why they were taking the class. I expected to teach students who could not find Israel on a map. My expectation was usually accurate.
For student protesters Netanyahu's Israel is the country having inflicted more than 30,000 deaths on the people of an occupied territory because terrorists killed one tenth that number of Israelis. From their perspective, protesting is the only just option.
Donn M. Kurtz II, PhD, is a retired professor of political science at the University of Louisiana. He resides in Knoxville, TN.
