Nathan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency, is worried about Israel's deteriorating position on the campuses of American universities. In an interview to Israeli radio (Feb. 12, 2010) Sharansky recounted how shocked he had been to hear American Jewish students sharply criticizing Israel's acts and saying "because of Israel, we are ashamed to be Jewish".
When asked: "Perhaps in order to improve Israel's image, we should change our policy towards the Palestinians in the Territories?" Sharansky was very surprised at the very question: No, he said, there is no connection whatsoever. These students just don’t understand that criticism of Israel is the new form of anti-Semitism. Maybe, we should increase the number of Zionist emissaries to the universities, to tell the students to stop listening to antisemites.
A long time ago, when he lived in the Soviet Union, Sharansky became renowned as a dissident, who campaigned for human rights and was not broken by many years behind bars. This concern for human rights he left behind, in the Russian snow.
