This piece was featured in the Columbia Spectator on Tuesday, December 6, 2011. It was written by the Eric Schorr, 2011-2012 LionPAC President.

This week Columbia students will once again be subjected to the uninvited—yet ever-present and monotonous—propaganda of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This week, the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine will promote its Right to Education Week, the focus of which will not be education, but the distortion and mischaracterization of Israeli security against terrorism as a system of oppression against Palestinians. Those of you familiar with the back-and-forth swinging of the pendulum between the two sides on campus may be surprised to find that, this time, one of the sides will be taking a different approach to the debate.

The discussion on campus has fundamentally shifted in the last two years—in that it simply no longer exists. The two sides cannot be aptly described as pro-Israel vis-à-vis pro-Palestine. Rather, the dichotomy has become pro-Israel versus anti-Israel. When one side promotes dialogue, conversation, and mutual recognition, and the other side preaches occupation, oppression, and apartheid, there is a clear disparity of issues and a break in the direction of the discussion. The two sides are no longer parallel in path. I could bore you with a lengthy diatribe of facts and figures, but I propose a different way of determining this new dichotomy: Ask members of C-SJP a series of questions.

Continue reading…

Next Friday night, we are honored to have Dr. Daniel Gordis return to his alma mater once again and spend Shabbat with the Hillel community. Please join us at dinner Friday night (catered by Carlos and Gabby’s!), followed by a keynote address delivered by Dr. Gordis. Saturday afternoon Dr. Gordis will be leading a shiur (study session) before afternoon services at Hillel.

To sign up for dinner on Friday night, find any LionPAC board member or pay on PayPal. The $5 is definitely worth it for this amazing dinner!

If you have any questions about the weekend, please email lionpac@hillel.columbia.edu

On Sunday, October 16th, Alan Dershowitz came to the Kraft Center for Jewish Life at Columbia University to speak:

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most controversial topics in the media today. How do journalists balance this contentious issue to produce an even-handed portrayal of the conflict? This event will feature three distinguished panelists with extensive experience in journalism and reporting on Israel. Ethan Bronner is the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times and Yaakov Katz is the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post. Ari Goldman is a professor at the Columbia Journalism School who worked for many years at the New York Times. Their combined insight will help illuminate the media’s treatment of Israel and will present a method for understanding Israel independent of how the media portrays the country.

For more information, check our Facebook event.

Alan Dershowitz is a renowned American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He is known as “Israel’s single most visible defender – the Jewish state’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.” He has authored numerous books about politics and law, including The Case for Israel, The Case for Peace, and most recently, The Trials of Zion.

He will be speaking on the topic of “America, Israel, and the Palestinians: In Pursuit of Peace” on Sunday, October 16th. For more information, please view the event page.