If only Israel Apartheid Week, which took place in the UK last week and will move to campuses around the world in the coming days, was just another example of ephemeral sloganeering by over-excited students.
The phrase 'Israel Apartheid' has amounted to a giant rebranding success by anti-Israel activists, on a par with the best corporate marketing campaigns. In some cases, this canard is a vehicle for plain old antisemitism.
For those Israel critics with whom it is possible to reason, here are some suggestions. Go to Zefat Academic College in Safed, where 70 per cent of the students are Arab. Visit Hadassah Hospital, where Arabs and Jews work alongside each other, treating members of each others' communities side by side. Listen to the student representatives sent around the world this week to put Israel's case to the Apartheid Week campaigners; among them were Druze Arabs, Muslims and Ethiopians. And note that Israel has just appointed an ethnic Ethiopian as its new envoy to the African state. It is not a question of being an ally or enemy of Israel.
It's the truth that needs more friends.
