I invite all of you to look at the article in the March 1 edition of “The Cutting Edge”, written by our executive director, Sam Edelman. The essay, called “Campus Distress; A Week of Uncivil Discourse on Campus”, discusses five incidents over the course of a week that may be indicative of a new tactic in anti-Israel/anti-Zionist activity on campus. You may also have seen the resource page we have posted on our website (“FYI For those of you who are concerned about Israel Apartheid Week”) offering information and resources on how to understand and respond to IAW activities that might be occurring on your campuses.

The first two weeks of March have been designated as “Israel Apartheid Week” and we know of a number of campuses on which activities have been planned. There may be others that we simply do not know about because they have been kept under the radar. There are of course other initiatives going on, from calls for boycotts, to divestment resolutions, to demands for sanctions on Israel in the wake of the Goldstone report.

It is important to keep in mind that despite the hype, none of these activities pose an immediate existential threat to Israel or to Jews. They can, however, be the camel’s nose in the tent. Let unaddressed they can establish popular assumptions about the Middle East and reshape the discourse. We at SPME, along with our colleagues in other organizations, have been able to respond to these incidents and limit their impact, but the work is hardly over. New modes of advancing the IAW agenda are being evolved all the time. It is important that we keep monitoring the situation, and as tactics change, we must be in a position to respond rapidly, appropriately and effectively.

I again ask each of you to be aware of what is happening on your campuses and to let us know so that we can develop responses in a pro-active rather than re-active way.

Best wishes for a good spring. Please remember that we are here to support you.

Peter Haas