New research conducted by the Israel on Campus Coalition in partnership with Schoen Cooperman Research shows that among 1000 U.S. adults surveyed, 81% of them support Israel’s right to defend itself. Additionally, poll results showed that 82% believe a final ceasefire deal should require Hamas’ removal from power in Gaza.

The poll, which was conducted between February 14 and 18, also explored on-campus antisemitism. The ICC and Schoen surveyed 400 college students and 250 Jewish college students to assess perceptions of antisemitism and attitudes towards Israel and the Israel-Hamas conflict. It revealed that 75% of college students have experienced, witnessed or heard about antisemitic incidents on their campus, while 74% of Jewish college students believe antisemitism is a serious problem on their campus.

“These findings demonstrate unwavering public support for Israel and deep concern about the alarming rise of antisemitism, especially on college campuses,” the ICC’s CEO Jacob Baime said in a statement.

“These findings demonstrate unwavering public support for Israel and deep concern about the alarming rise of antisemitism.” Jacob Baime

Carly Cooperman, CEO of Schoen Cooperman Research, echoed a similar sentiment.

“The Israel-Hamas war is also a priority on college campuses, as virtually all college students surveyed say that this issue is important to them,” she said. “Though, there is widespread concern among college students generally—and particularly among Jewish college students—that the conflict has increased antisemitism on campus, and large majorities view this issue as a serious problem.”

According to the poll, 76% of general college students believe antisemitism is a serious problem on their campus, and the Israel-Hamas war ranks as the second most important issue for them (27%); only costs and inflation (43%) outrank them. Other top issues include healthcare (21%), immigration (19%) and affordable housing (19%). Over 90% of college students say that the Israel-Hamas War is an important issue to them, and nearly three-quarters view it as very important.

For Jewish college students, the Israel-Hamas war is the top issue, ranking at 40%, followed by violent crime and gun violence (28%), healthcare (27%) and costs and inflation (25%). Plus, 94% of Jewish college students say the Israel-Hamas War “is an important issue to them generally, including a 60% majority who consider very important,” according to the study.

Furthermore, 80% of Jewish college students have experienced (30%), seen (29%) or heard about (22%) an antisemitic incident taking place on campus.

Among Americans, following the Kanye West Superbowl ad and t-shirt controversy, four in five U.S. adults report that antisemitism is a serious problem in the United States today and 84% of U.S. adults believe It’s important for organizations and public figures to speak out and strongly denounce all forms of antisemitism, discrimination and violence against Jewish people.

The ICC, a pro-Israel organization that offers fellowships to students who are Israel advocates, frequently polls Americans, as well as Jews, to understand the current climate.

With these poll findings and the rise in antisemitism in America and on college campuses in particular, Baime said, “It’s clear that university leaders and policymakers must take action.”

Peter Beinart, a prolific Jewish critic of Israel, appeared in Beverly Hills to promote his recently released book, “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.” He participated in a discussion about his book, which was published in January, with UCLA Jewish history professor David Myers.

Before a sold-out crowd at the Lumiere Music Hall on Feb. 19, Beinart spoke about Israel being an “ethno-nationalism project” and outlined his hope to one day see a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where everyone residing there — Jews, Arabs, Christians, whomever — enjoyed “legal equality.”

Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York. He’s also editor-at-large at Jewish Currents, a progressive Jewish quarterly magazine. 

Since emerging on the Jewish intellectual scene in 2010 with the publication of his essay, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” followed by his 2012 book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” Beinart has said his frustration has been less about Israel — though it’s fair to say he’s not a fan of the country under its current leadership — than it has been with the organized American Jewish community’s response to Israel’s actions.

In his recent conversation with Myers, Beinart hammered home that point. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Beinart said, Israel has become the dominant feature of Jewish life, to the detriment of other aspects of Judaism. He offered up an example of a rabbi, on Shabbat, asking his congregants to switch on their electronic devices to donate funds to support Israel.

This illustrated everything that’s currently dumbfounding about the American Jewish establishment, he said.

As for what’s been happening on college campuses, Beinart, in an incredulous tone, pointed out that campus Hillels don’t take strong positions on issues such as keeping Shabbat or keeping kosher but are unequivocal in their support for Israel. 

The website of Hillel International, which describes itself as “the world’s largest and most inclusive Jewish campus organization,” says, “Israel is at the heart of Hillel’s work.”

In discussion about anti-Israel activities on college campuses, such as “Israeli Apartheid Week,” Beinart said Jewish students would feel less threatened by anti-Israel activism on their campuses if they had a more well-rounded education about the issue in high school. This could include exposing Jewish high school students to Palestinian authors, Beinart said.

In Beinart’s eyes, there is an absence of mainstream pro-Palestinian voices and therefore an opportunity for those who are willing to be vocally pro-Palestinian, particularly in the Democratic party. It’s a lane that isn’t being occupied.

While he declined to explicitly say whether Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to a genocide, he’s been listening to experts, including scholar Omer Bartov, on the subject. A professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, Bartov has called Israel’s war in Gaza a “total moral, ethical failure.”

Beinart condemned Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7, but he asked, rhetorically, ‘how well has non-violent Palestinian resistance worked?’ 

As the American Jewish community has become increasingly concerned with all things Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack,, Beinart has found himself turning to the ritualistic and cerebral aspects of the religion that have nothing to do with Israel. 

Currently, he’s doing Daf Yomi, a daily regimen of learning one page of Talmud each day over the course of seven-and-a-half years.

While most of the conversation focused on Beinart’s views, Myers also revealed his perspective. The UCLA professor, in the aftermath of the war in Gaza, said he no longer identifies as Zionist. He also doesn’t identify as “anti-Zionist” but called himself a “non-Zionist.” He offered this remark while discussing his participation in a recent conference at Brown University — “Non-Zionist Jewish Traditions” — that explored a “rainbow of non-Zionist Jewish traditions.” 

A Q&A segment followed the discussion. 

Organized by Writers Bloc Presents, a Los Angeles-based literary events organization, the event had originally been scheduled to take place at Skirball Cultural Center but was relocated to the Lumiere in Beverly Hills, according to Beinart. 

Positing on his X account days before the gathering, Beinart said the Skirball “cancelled” his talk, though The Journal was not immediately able to verify that claim. 

Andrea Grossman, founder of Writers Bloc, delivered introductions at the start of the evening. Showing how heated the topic of Israel has become, Grossman said any disruptors would be immediately tossed out and could even face criminal charges from the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Such warnings, however, appeared to be unnecessary. 

Instead, over the course of the 90-minute discussion between Beinart and Myers, audience members, including those munching on popcorn, proceeded to nod along as Beinart appeared to validate their complicated feelings about Israel.