and Sue Fishkoff

Jewish organizations that work on American college campuses are preparing student leaders for what they expect will be a barrage of anti-Israel sentiment this fall.

"It's going to be very challenging, not like the past four years," said Jonathan Kessler, leadership development director at American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

He noted in an interview that "Israel has been very strong on campus since 2002," after almost two years of anti-Israel animosity following the outbreak of the Palestinian Intifada in September 2000.

At the University of Maryland at College Park, according to senior Avi Mayer, the past couple of years have been relaxed for pro-Israel activists.

"There really wasn't much hostile activity going on [around] campus," said Mayer, and "we haven't had much to respond to," particularly compared to the early part of the decade.

In the wake of the Lebanon war, however, Mayer said he expected that "there will be some stuff to react to" when students return to school this semester. But he and others at a panel discussion for college students last Thursday night at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville stressed the importance of continuing to be proactive in planning Israel initiatives on campus.

"This is an incredible opportunity to educate [your] peers [and] to become a meaningful pro-Israel asset on campus," said David Harris, the Israel on Campus Coalition's executive director, outlining a list of more than two dozen "great ideas for pro-Israel campus initiatives." Those include everything from starting a pro-Israel petition to creating a pro-Israel advertisement series on Facebook ‹ an online directory that connects people ‹ to organizing a pro-Israel teach-in to passing a pro-Israel student government resolution.

The list is part of a publication titled Israel Under Attack: Resource Guide that the ICC made available on its Web site last Friday.

Harris also said that the ICC would be offering "Emergency Campus Advocacy and Action Grants" of $2,000-$7,500 this fall to assist with funding campuswide pro-Israel activities designed to make a significant impact on the school.

In addition, the ICC has produced a 120-page binder of educational and advocacy initiatives that members are distributing to their campus representatives, and also is planning a Sept. 5 summit in Washington, D.C.

Adi Timor, a military attache at the Embassy of Israel, told the students, "You are Israel's ambassadors, [and] it is up to you to support Israel," and urged them to call the embassy if they need assistance.

Also on the panel ‹ which was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the D.C. Coalition of Synagogue Israel Support Committees and drew about 25 adults and students ‹ was AIPAC campus programming director Lauren Slawsky, who requested that her remarks be kept off the record.

Harris sees indications of a difficult fall for pro-Israel students, noting op-ed articles and cartoons critical of Israel already have appeared in summer editions of campus newspapers.

He cited an incident at the University of California at Los Angeles earlier this summer, when a delegation of pro-Israel students came east to participate in an AIPAC event. The student government took advantage of the activists' absence from campus to pass a resolution critical of the Jewish state.

One answer to such problems, said Mayer, is to develop relationships on campus with "people with authority." For example, he pointed to his own friendship with University of Maryland's student government president, saying that she is "thrilled to come to Hillel and do a voter registration drive" this fall, a project also co-sponsored by College Democrats and Republicans.

"I firmly believe once people are educated," Mayer said after the program, "the facts are on our side."

Meanwhile, Hillel, the largest Jewish student organization, "completely changed" the program for its Charles Schusterman International Student Leaders Assembly scheduled for the end of August, the group's international director, Wayne Firestone, said in an interview.

AIPAC, too, found itself retooling the agenda to focus on Israel's right to defend itself when it brought more than 350 pro-Israel student activists to Washington in late July for four days of advocacy training at the Saban National Political Leadership Training Seminar.

Other groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the various Jewish religious streams, are preparing their campus representatives in similar fashion.

In a way, some of these leaders point out, Israel's war against Hezbollah will be easier for students to rally around than more complex issues such as last year's Gaza withdrawal or the West Bank security barrier.

"There is a face to this enemy, and it's an ugly face," Firestone said.

Jewish student leaders will face varied and nuanced attitudes on campus.

"We have to serve students coming back all gung-ho from conferences like this, to students coming back from peace rallies," Firestone noted. "All these viewpoints are legitimate, and we can't alienate any of them."

Eric Fingerhut is WJW staff writer; Sue Fishkoff writes for JTA.