Forward op-ed: Zionists complaining about death threats are "snowflakes"

Rob Eshman writes in The Forward:

The way Jewish institutions reacted to a few dozen pro-Palestinian students protesting at the University of Michigan last week exemplifies an unwelcome trend in pro-Israel advocacy: the rise of Snowflake Zionism.  

The protesters marched through campus on Jan. 12 behind a woman who shouted into a bullhorn, “There is only one solution!” They chanted back, “Intifada! Revolution.”

The protest prompted a storm of outrage from some Jewish organizations, right-leaning  Jewish outlets and social media, amplifying concerns that college campuses are not welcoming to supporters of Israel.

“We’re outraged by the chants calling for a violent intifada and demanding ‘Zionists have got to go’ by SJP at @UMich,” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “Let’s be clear: this is a direct call to violence and the university must investigate this as a possible violation of Jewish students’ rights under #TitleVI.”

Such responses have now become a kind of Palestinian-Jewish Kabuki. Students march. Jewish organizations swoop in, hurling accusations of antisemitism, demanding investigations and threatening to strip away federal funding. 

There are plenty of real antisemitic threats, as well as vandalism and assaults, committed on campuses and off. . But by intervening in every campus display of anti-Israel activity — and attempting to defund schools over it — in the guise of making  campuses “safe” for pro-Israel Jewish students, are we are creating a generation of fragile Zionists unable to stand up for what they believe in the face of fierce criticism?

Calling for a new intifada is not exactly "fierce criticism." It is incitement to murder. 

The earliest I can find the "Intifada Revolution" chant documented is from 2016, in the Twitter account of Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of Within Our Lifetime. Kiswani openly cheers murdering Jews and had perself made direct physical threats against Zionists. There is no way to misinterpret "Intifada Revolution" as anything other than a direct call to violence.

Are Jews who fight back against being directly threatened "snowflakes"?

I think the anti-Zionists are doing our kids a favor. They are provoking those who disagree to marshal their best arguments, to figure out ways to inform and persuade others, and maybe, just maybe, to consider the merits of other points of view. 

If the anti-Zionists were open to debate, maybe. But they are not. They try to shut down any Zionist activity, they promote bullying Zionist Jews, they consider dialogue to be a form of "normalization." So when students on campus are confronted with the most fanatic, pro-terror elements who shut down any chance for a meeting of minds, what option do they have to stand up for themselves? Should they also incite to murder? Should they march around campus calling for a new Nakba to finish the job (and then claim that they mean a "peaceful Nakba")? 

I'm all for college students knowing how to answer anti-Israel arguments. That's part of the purpose of this site. But Eshman is telling Jewish students not to fight back when they are directly threatened, and that is completely wrong.

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