In the latest kerfuffle in Israel-Diaspora relations, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely—in an interview on an English-language Israeli news station—stated that teenagers in Israel overwhelmingly serve in the military, while American Jewish teenagers rarely do. For this comment, for which she has already apologized publicly, she was roundly criticized by some and enthusiastically defended by others. Rumors flew of her pending resignation. But Gil Troy, an American-born writer who has lived in Israel for many years, sees this as a tempest in a teapot:

Perhaps [Israeli and American Jews] could discuss our differences calmly if [Hotovely] had first affirmed that American Jews are our “brothers” and sisters and that she “cares” about them. She could have “welcomed” all Jews to see Israel as their “home.” And she should have singled out radicals trying to impose a “liberal dictatorship” who shut down alternative viewpoints and only blame Israel without acknowledging the conflict’s “complexity” or any Palestinian culpability.

Surprise! Watch the entire . . . interview: that’s what she did. She highlighted the importance of the [Israel-Diaspora] relationship before conveying her accurate criticism. . . .

Israeli and American Jews have never had more constructive grassroots contact. Forty percent of American Jews and Israelis have visited each other’s country. That percentage doubled in twenty years, thanks to Birthright Israel, general tourism, and other bridge-building initiatives. . . . Yet too many leaders, who should know better—along with loudmouth extremists in both countries who don’t want to know better—foul the relationship with aggressive demagoguery and thin-skinned responses. . . .

[It’s] true: Israelis are targeted by Palestinian terrorism, Iranian nuclear ambitions, and every anti-Semite and anti-Zionist on the planet, while American Jews barely are. And the typical Israeli serves in the army, while the rare American Jew does. . . . [T]he different experiences my kids have as soldiers and their [American] cousins have as students merit thoughtful conversation, not finger-pointing or posturing.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.