[Hudson Institute-New York] Khaled Abu Toameh - During a recent visit to several university campuses in the U.S., I was told that Israel's Gaza operation was launched only because Hamas was beginning to show signs that it was interested in making peace and not because of the rockets that the Islamic movement was launching at Israeli communities. I was also told that top Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in prison for masterminding terror attacks against Israeli civilians, was thrown behind bars simply because he was trying to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Many people I met supported Hamas and believed that it had the right to "resist the occupation," even if that meant blowing up children and women on a bus in Jerusalem. The pro-Palestinian "junta" on the campuses has nothing to offer other than hatred and delegitimization of Israel. If these folks really cared about the Palestinians, they would be campaigning for good government and for the promotion of values of democracy and freedom in the West Bank and Gaza. What is happening on the U.S. campuses is not really about supporting the Palestinians and ending the "occupation" as much as it is about ending the existence of Israel. What is happening on these campuses is not about freedom of speech but the freedom to disseminate hatred and violence. We should not be surprised if the next generation of jihadists comes not from Gaza or Afghanistan but from university campuses across the U.S.
2009-03-25 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive