I well remember marching for Sharansy when he was a PoZ in the old Soviet Union.

I was a bit of an activist back then, so perhaps I should avoid sounding like a curmudgeon and go off on a rant about how young Jewish students these days are such a disappointment.

They are clearly facing pressures my age cohort never had to cope with, and I won't criticise, I don't think I have the right.

But Sharansky is absolutely correct when he identifies the university campus as a key battleground.

It's where we could lose, and perhaps may have already lost, the future.

Students are only scruffy layabouts for so long.

Fifteen to twenty years later, they're running the place, and if all they know about Israel and Jews is negative, it won't matter if it's nonsense.

http://silentrunning.tv/archives/003282.php

I recommend Alan Dershowitz's book "Why terrorism works" for a grasp of how persuasive Palestinian propaganda has been.

The book illustrates how the use of terrorism has drawn attention, and much sympathy, to the Palestinian cause without creating a ripple of concern over the use of tactics.

Tom, as you write :
Fifteen to twenty years later, they're running the place, and if all they know about Israel and Jews is negative, it won't matter if it's nonsense.

It is in large part thanks to the media. The lies, deception and instigation to violence are part of a political agenda and really even if the Israelis had a better propaganda machine they would have had the battle, anyway, to get their message across.
The NYT, LAtimes, the BBC you name it are an absolute disgrace, the way they selectively reported the "facts".
The big problem is that today's students in general are being taught a conformity of thought and given a politically correct (To each paper/network its agenda) presentation of facts that they have no ability to independently analyse and form an opinion free from bias.
Not just Israel is going to suffer, but the very political foundations of the countries where the majority of their voters will be unable to competently choose their representatives.
A recent example was the MSNBC program "America's Voices"
where Itamar Marcus faced an audience and host described by Charles of LGF as "in deep, deep denial".
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8686_Itamar_Marcus_on_MSNBC#comments

Just found this article from Canada's National Post and it just seems to show that no matter what Israel might say it would fall on deaf ears.
http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.asp?id=9BA15AB2-40F4-4E7E-897C-513EC41FA9BE

It seems to me that Melanie Phillips is blind to the wood for the trees. Most student's are by nature on the side of the underdog and in favour of political and social justice. There's no need for a 'Palestinian propaganda offensive' when the IDF kills children, destroys homes and drives families from their homeland every day, every week, every month, every year. It's instinctual, and right, for students to express their outrage about this situation.

Thankfully, people are now becoming aware of the evils of the zionism - not just students.
Of course it is 50 years too late - but better late than never.
Now it seems the very existence of the state of Israel is coming into question - and rightly so ..

Wow ! Even the IDF are now openly criticising Sharon and his brutal policies :

'Israel's army chief has exposed deep divisions between the military and Ariel Sharon by branding the government's hardline treatment of Palestinian civilians counter-productive and saying that the policy intensifies hatred and strengthens the "terror organisations".
Lieutenant-General Moshe Ya'alon also told Israeli journalists in an off-the-record briefing that the army was opposed to the route of the "security fence" through the West Bank. The government also contributed to the fall of the former Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, by offering only "stingy" support for his attempts to end the conflict, he said.

Gen Ya'alon had apparently hoped his anonymous criticisms would strengthen the army's voice, which has been subordinated to the views of the intelligence services in shaping policy.

But the comments were so devastating that he was swiftly revealed as the source.

The statements - which a close associate characterised to the Israeli press as warning that the country was "on the verge of a catastrophe" - will also reinforce a growing perception among the public that Mr Sharon is unable to deliver the peace with security he promised when he came to office nearly three years ago.

The general warned that the continued curfews, reoccupation of towns and severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, combined with the economic crisis they have caused, were increasing the threat to Israel's security.

"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest," Gen Ya'alon said. "It increases hatred for Israel and strengthens the terror organisations."

Earlier this week, army commanders in the West Bank told the military administration in the occupied territories that Palestinians had reached new depths of despair, which was fuelling a hatred for Israeli that had little to do with the propaganda so often blamed by the government.

"There is no hope, no expectations for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, nor in Bethlehem and Jericho," said Gen Ya'alon.

Mr Sharon and Mr Mofaz were reportedly furious at the general's statements and initially demanded that he retract them or resign. But the political establishment apparently decided it would be better to deride Gen Ya'alon.

He said the military had warned that the fence, which digs deep into Palestinian territory, caging some towns and villages and cutting farmers off from their land, will make the lives of some Palestinians "unbearable" and require too many soldiers to guard it.

Further questions were raised yesterday after the chairman of parliament's defence budget committee revealed that the cost of the fence could triple to £1.3bn - or 3% of the national budget - if Mr Sharon fulfils his plan for the fence to run around Jewish settlements and the length of the Jordan valley so that it encircles the bulk of the Palestinian population'.

"the IDF kills children, destroys homes and drives families from their homeland every day, every week, every month, every year. It's instinctual, and right, for students to express their outrage about this situation."

First of all, it is the arabs who deliberately, methodically, in cold cold blood, murder children, and not just just their own. As for the "Palestinians", they have a homeland larger than Israel in Eastern Palestine. Most of this fraudulent, manufactured arab nationality never left their "homeland". And yes, terrorists are having their houses destroyed because they massacred Israeli civilians. If they didn't like it, they wouldn't murder Israelis. But they do like it, because they are muslims, and their disgusting, worthless, diseased culture, which has never given anything to the world but oppression, genocide and terror, requires them to slaughter the infidel.

I dont know what to say, but i likeed it.