Students should go to Israel

Right now IU is standing at a crossroads. A number of faculty are weighing the decision whether to let students study in Israel next year. Our University has a long-standing relationship with Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Every year IU sends a number of students to study in Jerusalem for a year or a semester. But unfortunately, next year IU students may not be studying in Israel because of the violence.\nIt is important to remember why the current violence is going on and what our reaction should be. Every single day, people in Israel are dying. Terrorism has gripped the nation in fear. I hear stories of Israelis afraid to go to the grocery store or a movie theater. It sounds bad and it really is bad. That is no excuse not to go to Israel.\nTerrorism has been a part of Israeli life since its very inception. Before there ever was an "occupation" there was terrorism. Before Israel "occupied" Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and the Gaza Strip, there was terrorism. The Palestine Liberation Organization, now under Arafat's control, was created in 1964, three years before "occupation." Israel is a beautiful country that withstood overwhelming odds to become a permanent home for the Jewish people. They stared terrorism straight in the eye and by words and deeds proclaimed to the entire world that terrorism would not defeat them. This is the spirit in which a number of IU students desire with all of our hearts to study in Israel. I will not give in to the terrorists and give them what they want and neither should IU.\nIt would be unwise to assume that every single one of the students applying to study in Israel is not aware of the situation. We are well aware that by traveling to Israel we are taking a risk. We are adults and competent enough to decide whether to go. Give us all your State Department warnings, have us sign all the necessary liability forms and let us go to Israel as IU students. Keep the program open. Already, a number of programs for both high school and college age students have cancelled their trips to Israel because of the growing campaign of Palestinian terror. Do not let IU become another sad statistic as part of the growing number of organizations, which fall into the hands of the terrorists and play their game. \nNow is the time for IU to show initiative and hold its head up high. Show the students the confidence we deserve. Proclaim, YES! We are going to send students to Israel if that is where their hearts are sending them. Don't become a statistic, become an example to the other universities around the country that are pondering the same difficult decisions you are. \nWe want to go because it is the right thing to do. Israel is a country with great beauty and Jerusalem is a city of dreams. We will learn more about life and ourselves in Israel than in four years here at IU. It is an experience IU has no right or justification to withhold from its students. Let my people go. \nI know and understand you do not want to cancel the trip. And I appreciate your concern for our safety. But leave the decision to the students to go or not to go study in Israel. Let the diplomats at the State Department make their proclamations and warnings. Indeed, give the students the warnings and all other relevant information about the trip, but let us make the choice.