Louise Ross writes:
I went to hear Peter Beinart last night at American University. Very interesting audience. Quiet and respectful group – lots of people from the neighborhood where the wealthiest synagogue in D.C. happens to be located. (Quite different from the crowd at Fordham when Alan Dershowitz accused Richard Goldstone of blood libel.)
The AU students who asked questions were Birthrighters and disputed the notion that their generation was not connected to events in Israel. The older folks talked about their love of Israel but their disregard for the Netanyahu government. Peter Beinart had an older Jewish professor as a counterbalance to his remarks but the guy seemed much more respectful of Beinart than I would have expected. I think his name is Calvin Goldscheider.
I had no idea (and was grateful to learn) that the Birthright visits do not take young American Jews anywhere near the security wall or the West Bank – no wonder they come home so proud! Also, there was an interesting comment by Beinart about the ultra-Orthodox crowd who do not contribute much to the country and in fact get a stipend and have lots of kids!
Happily, the settlement issue came up and Beinart could not see a way of stopping their growth anytime soon. He did talk about the growth of the Palestinians versus the Israelis and how soon the Israeli sector would be overwhelmed just by the numbers. These university groups are very interesting – no bomb throwers here. The only daring soul of late is my friend Ray McGovern who stood up and turned his back on Hillary Clinton as she defended the Israeli stance in the State Department and the jailing of Bradley Manning – got dragged off and beaten up for just standing there!
