LIer counters anti-Israel rhetoric

Posted

In the battle against anti-Israel misinformation, StandWithUs (SWU) is a bulwark, countering the diatribes with positive, educational, factual accounts of Israel’s history. This month, starting August 2nd, SWU placed 75 ads with six variations in Metro-North train stations in New York and Connecticut as a response to a blatantly anti-Israel and factually incorrect advertising campaign.

“We want to respond to negative anti-Israel messages with positive pro-Israel messages,” said Avi Posnick, New York Regional Coordinator for StandWithUs. “We challenge what they said with facts. That is what we will do throughout the country as need be.”

StandWithUs was founded by Roz and Jerry Rothstein, Esther Renzer, and a small group of volunteers in Los Angeles in 2001in response to the murder of Koby Mandell, 13, and Yosef Ishran, 14, by Arab terrorists near Tekoa in Israel. Rothstein saw this murder and other violence as a product of the Arabs’ “hateful training” and “creation of hatred.” They reached out to leaders, clergy and media in the United States and planned rallies, but saw the tide of misinformation on college campuses and the helplessness of students to bolster Israel’s defense and cause.

“For 30 years, we took Israel for granted and now we are faced with a lot of catch-up,” explained Rothstein. “We have to learn how to mend that, how to create connection between young people and Israel, make them feel like they want to engage.”

SWU is now an international non-profit, based in L.A. with chapters across the U.S. and in Israel, France and the United Kingdom. Their stated goal is to use students to educate students on campuses and in local communities about Israel through lectures, social media, and conferences, and provides literature and access to further resources on their website.

The current campaign counters a poster placed in 100 sites on Metro-North that incorrectly shows Israel as Palestine (there never was a State of Palestine: the Romans renamed the Jewish state of Judea Palestine after they conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple there. The area had been a Jewish country for over 1200 years. Since that time, there was never a sovereign country there, the land desolate and barely inhabited until the return of the Jews and the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.)

The SWU posters counter that “Jews have had a continuous presence in Israel for over 3,000 years,” “Israel is the Jewish Homeland,” and advertise Israel’s contributions through innovations and water conservation and the Palestinian Arabs refusal to partner with Israel in the quest for peace.

Avi Posnick, an alumnus of Rambam Mesivta and a native of Oceanside, said that he got involved in SWU “in 2007, right out of college.” He said that he knew about SWU “through Rambam and all the activism there.” As NY regional coordinator, he said he is involved in “community outreach, until recently working with high schools, public speaking, helping coordinate campaigns and speaking at meetings to coordinate pro-Israel responses to anti-Israel campaigns—like the Park Slope Food Co-op, and is currently helping to start a young leadership division, ages 23-39.”

The current effort countered billboards that the Anti-Defamation League called “deliberately misleading and biased” placed in Metro-North stations by Henry Clifford, a former Wall Street Tycoon who paid $25,000 of his own money for the ads.

“We wanted to put our own billboards in the same stations, as we did in train stations around the country wherever anti-Israel billboards were up,” said Posnick. Previous SWU campaigns to counter anti-Israel misinformation were in September 2011 in New York’s subway stations and in 2007 and 2009 in Washington, DC, Albuquerque, Houston as well as other campaigns in Chicago San Francisco, Berkeley, Denver and convinced Seattle not to permit the posting of anti-Israel material there.

Posnick credits his leaning to advocacy to his education and his parents. “A huge factor was with the Israel advocacy and the Zionism class with Rabbi (Yotav) Eliach and that I helped organize rallies that Rabbi (Zev Meir) Friedman (Rosh Mesivta of Rambam) coordinated.” His involvement in these activities made him realize that “this is what I wanted to do, with their guidance, that was my inspiration for getting involved.” He also “always thanks” his parents. “My parents always told us that when you have a skill expect that you give back to help others; you should do that.” He hopes to continue in this kind of work and to advocate and speak up for Israel and the Jewish people “for the rest of my life.” Posnick pointed out that the campaign has already brought results, noting a “lot of reactions, all over the news, CBS, NBC, New York Daily News, Haaretz.” He also pointed out that “people on the station platforms are happy to see a pro-Israel response to the misleading, anti-Israel billboards.”

The “major goal,” he said, is that people should get involved to get educated regarding the truth about Israel and educate others, to learn the facts and the history. “Our mission is to educate and empower people to educate others,” he emphasized. He stressed that SWU has “all kinds of material, for high school, college, young” and not so young adults. “I urge everyone to go to the website, learn the facts, and become empowered to advocate for Israel.”

For more information go to StandWithUs.com.