US Grad Students Hostile to Israel

(Suicide Bomb Bus in Front of Wall - By Dennis Prager on Trip to Israel in 2004)

Some disturbing results from a new survey by Frank Luntz regarding students views towards Israel. Here's a brief overview...but please click on the above link to view the full article by Gary Rosenblatt at New York Jewish Week.

• New survey by Frank Luntz about attitudes toward Israel among graduate students at top U.S. universities offers a disturbing if not frightening picture of increasing sympathy for the Palestinian cause and blame on the Jewish state for the lack of peace.
• “Tomorrow’s leaders… are hostile to the Jewish state,” a growing trend that could jeopardize American foreign policy toward Israel in the near future.
• Many of the students come from homes sympathetic to Israel.
• Through exposure to university professors and mainstream media have grown “impatient” with Israel and emotionally connected to the Palestinian cause.
• To the point of rationalizing Palestinian suicide bombings and coming to see Israel as a “burden” to the United States rather than “an ally.”
• Students “view any U.S. support of Israel as generated by wealthy Jewish special interests rather than as a reflection of the national interest.”
• Many of the students said they changed their attitudes toward the Mideast conflict during their college and post-college years as they “learned more,” in their words, about the situation from professors, Palestinians they met on campus and the media. The New York Times is their top source of news information, and the BBC is widely watched as well.
• The students believe the American media is biased toward Israel, according to the report, and that Palestinians are making a greater effort toward peace than Israel.
• According to Luntz’s findings, the graduate students “know nothing about the history of the Middle East,” including the fact that the United Nations was involved in Israel’s founding or that Israel is a democracy.

Also check out the Israel Project a site devoted to winning hearts and minds for Israel.