I hope you are reading my comment, posted above, as well; perhaps it will help you expand to a more “both/and” – rather than such a solidly “either/or” – way of holding and processing the world.

Blessed be.

To Eitan Isaacson: thank you for representing those of us in “the older generation” who celebrate the ability of our offspring to grow, to see clearly, and to challenge full-heartedly.

To Alissa from Brandeis: “The main thing that this article fails to do is distinguish between the current Israeli government and Israel” – Thank you for the clarity of your words; many on both the Right/Middle and the Left are difficult to speak with for the same reason.

To Rochelle W. and Erika N.:
“Students may talk politics 24/7 but on the day of their graduation all they are looking for is fun,happiness and lunch. They want an event that’s memorable in a non-challenging way.” & “The day is too important for the class to be divided politically along either line; regardless of beliefs about the conflict, our graduation should be about us, celebrating together as an entire class.”
You both – representing two generations – have articulated the central issue: it is a day than calls for uniting the entire graduating class and its families. Look how the rest of the conversation here has gone directly for the opposite: disagreement, division, and conflict…unable even to *acknowledge* an issue that transcends which “side” anyone holds. I dearly hope that the actual graduation day was kinder, gentler, and more celebratory and inclusive than this column and thread!
Blessed be all.

“And then we go to Hebrew school, where first we are lied to (“a people without a land, for a land without a people”)”

Please refer to Mark Twain: Journey to the Holy Land or
Henry Baker Tristram’s visit to the Holy Land at the beginning of the 19th Century or
P.E.F. map of Western Palestine Sheet No. VI or
Robinson Smith, Vol. II p. 174 or
P.E.F.Q. 1873 p.150 or
Royal Commission Report, p. 259 or
The Dutch explorer Van De Velde p. 157

and many more who all describe how desolated, deserted and devastated the Holy Land was during the Ottoman rule.

There were less than 250,000 people in this barren land most of them nomadic Bedouin tribes.

There was no dispossession. In fact most Arab immigration to the Holy Land started with the immigration of Jews in the late 19th Century.

Do you know how many Arabs in Israel participated in terror and support of terror groups since 1948?
Do you know how many Arabs in Israel spied for terrorist groups and the Arab states around us?

“where a secret police reigns supreme”

Where do you get this kind of hogwash? Do you know how many police officers are tried and charged every year for criminal felonies? Even our former Prime Minister and former President are standing trial not to mention former members of Knesset.
Very few people here escape justice. I haven’t seen this kind of treatment in the States.

“where one set of laws does not apply to half of it’s population”

NO ONE HERE IS ABOVE THE LAW

“Indeed it’s a sad day when Israel’s history of human rights violations, it’s refusal to meaningfully participate in a peace process”

I wonder where you get your information from? What human rights violations are you talking about? UN? HRW? AI? Adallah?

Peace process? What have Israel been doing since its inception if not looked for a meaningful peace with its neighbors?
Who exactly initiated so many wars against the state of Israel?
Who is fueling 120 years of terror against innocent civilians? a
Where do you get your information from?

“These students oppose the university’s choice of keynote speaker because they support Israel, they want it to succeed, and they believe that the Israeli government’s policy is a step in the wrong direction.”

Can you please elaborate what you mean by ” the Israeli government’s policy is a step in the wrong direction.”?

“It’s that we, along with most of the rest of the world, don’t know how Israel can peacefully co-exist with Palestine. Furthermore, not all, but many Jewish students at Brandeis disagree with the way that the Israeli government is dealing with the conflict.”

Can you show us the right direction?
Can you point us the light?
What do you think should be the right direction?
What is the Israeli Government doing wrong in dealing with the conflict?
What do you think the direction should be?

The main thing that this article fails to do is distinguish between the current Israeli government and Israel, the land of our ancestors and the nation that could once and for all free us from the violence of religious persecution. I think it is outrageous to say that the controversy among Brandeis students regarding Ambassador Oren as keynote speaker is a manifestation of a lack of support for Israel, especially based on ignorance of Israeli issues beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I would like to address the paragraph:

“No longer is Israel the country that managed to forge a future for the Jewish people when it was left in tatters after the Holocaust. Israel is not, in their minds, the country that gave refuge to hundreds of thousands of Jews expelled from North Africa when they had nowhere else to go, granting them all citizenship, in a policy dramatically different from the cynical decisions of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to turn their Palestinian refugees into pawns in what they (correctly) assumed would be a lengthy battle with Israel.”

First of all, Brandeis has one of the most respected Near Eastern and Judaic Studies programs in the country (not to mention our Peace, Conflict, and Co-Existence Studies Major.) We are aware. Secondly, a large portion of Jewish Brandeis students are of Ashkenazi heritage and have relatives that came to the US after fleeing prejudice and pogroms in Eastern Europe and/or have relatives that survived or were killed in the Holocaust. Not to mention Jewish students of Sephardic heritage from Syria, from North Africa. We are aware. At Brandeis, Israel is the most popular country in which to study abroad and so many students choose to go on Birthright every year. We are aware. And have you seen the amount of Zionist activism on campus? I also can not count the number of times that I’ve walked into a new friend’s dorm room to be confronted with a large Israeli flag covering a portion of one wall. We are an extremely aware student body when it comes to Israel.

We are also a student body that is generally very politically active on most fronts. It’s not that Jewish Brandeis students (from my experience) do not support Israel in an ideal world. It’s that we, along with most of the rest of the world, don’t know how Israel can peacefully co-exist with Palestine. Furthermore, not all, but many Jewish students at Brandeis disagree with the way that the Israeli government is dealing with the conflict. These students oppose the university’s choice of keynote speaker because they support Israel, they want it to succeed, and they believe that the Israeli government’s policy is a step in the wrong direction. They oppose the university’s choice of keynote speaker because they care. To these students, Ambassador Oren represents the Israeli government, not Israel as a whole. This is a distinction that needs to be made and should be considered by the author of this article, Mr. Gordis.