In October, J Street at UT-Austin complained that Texans for Israel used a logo featuring Israel's map without marking off the parts that the anti-Israel group feels rightly belong to Islamic terrorists.
Then J Street went a step further. J Street Austin had been campaigning against the Center for Security Policy. When it targeted Caroline Glick, it went after a proud pro-Israel voice, which triggered all its alarm bells. Glick has masterfully argued that Israel needs to consolidate the territory it liberated from occupation by its invading neighbors.
When J Street Austin went after the Center for Security Policy, it cited the widely discredited and criticized Southern Poverty Law Center hate group ranking. And then it led the attack against an invitation for Caroline Glick to speak.
First Israel's map came down. Then Glick's invitation.
Glick had warned about this troubling phenomenon earlier this year.
On a growing number of campuses in the United States, the only Jews who can safely express their views on Israel are those who champion Israel’s destruction.
That turned out to be the case at UT Austin.
The cancellation of a Tuesday event featuring conservative Israeli-American journalist Caroline Glick has led pro-Israel students at the University of Texas at Austin to take action against what they say is a liberal Jewish “monopoly” on views permitted to be voiced about the Jewish state, The Algemeinerhas learned.
“I’m sick and tired of having my voice stifled by [Jewish groups] Hillel, Texans for Israel (TFI) and AIPAC,” said David Palla, a former member of TFI who is spearheading a breakaway group to counteract a “radical change in Israel advocacy messaging on campus,” following the merger of TFI with a burgeoning chapter on campus of the left-wing organization J Street — under the auspices of Hillel.
According to Palla, this partnership resulted in a map of the state of Israel being removed from TFI’s logo.
An exclusive report by The Algemeiner on Sunday revealed that students affiliated with TFI, AIPAC and Hillel prevented Glick from coming to UT Austin out of concern that her presence would rile traditionally anti-Israel groups. According to Trepp, actions were taken after student leaders said they found Glick “listed by liberal organizations as associated with a hate group.”
Texas Hillel has posted a message claiming that it never happened. It is however unfortunately clear that this is exactly how it happens.
Hillel continues to sell out pro-Israel students. Meanwhile the constant pressure to push voices critical of Israel while silencing genuinely pro-Israel voices cannot and will not win any progressive hearts. As Hasbara programs go, normalizing hostility to Israel is as effective as trying to stay healthy by slashing your own wrists. Such efforts represent stealth manipulation by the anti-Israel left.
Like Brandeis' censoring of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it's a victory for terrorists and their collaborators over freedom. While SJP and other anti-Israel hate groups continue to bring vile hateful figures to campuses, pro-Israel organizations are manipulated into thinking that censoring pro-Israel voices will make them more effective. Integrating with J Street does not make a group more pro-Israel, but less so.
And refusing to listen to actual solutions outside the Two-State dead end box hurts Israel.