Middle East gets deserved attention

This week at Hopkins has been marked by a number of events concerning Middle Eastern affairs. Over the course of a few days, Hopkins has hosted four Middle East-related events, which were sponsored by over half a dozen organizations and attended by hundreds of students and community members. J Street U, a national collegiate organization advocating a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hosted a Town Hall this weekend. The event was their largest yet and attracted hundreds of students from dozens of colleges as well as numerous experts and speakers. Hopkins Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), in conjunction with two other organizations, received guest speaker Patrick Bond, a political economist involved in global justice, who compared the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to South African apartheid in the latter half of the 20th century. Hopkins American Partnership for Israel (HAPI) partnered with the Foreign Affairs Symposium (FAS) to hold a dinner and presentation event where Middle East policy expert Aaron David Miller discussed US-Israeli relations in the broader context of the Middle East and US foreign policy. FAS, American Enterprise Institute Executive Council and the Department of Military Science sponsored a panel discussion on Iran and al-Qaida.

The Editorial Board commends the work of these student groups and individuals who, through their collective efforts, have brought increased awareness to a divisive topic. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the broader situation in the Middle East, is a multi-faceted and complicated issue. By providing numerous events throughout the week, organizations such as J Street U, SJP, HAPI and FAS have provided the Hopkins student body and greater Baltimore community with many perspectives that will nurture a healthy environment for constructive debate on campus.

Not only was the Editorial Board pleasantly surprised by the number of Middle East-related events, but it was also impressed by the ability of event sponsors and organizers to involve students in the discussions. At each event there was a Q&A section where students were encouraged to engage with the speakers, and discussion was often lively and passionate.

Efforts such as the ones shown by these student groups will have a positive impact on a campus that is often characterized as apolitical and disinterested and will work to undo this image. The Board would like to see Hopkins students continue to engage with other important political issues in the in-depth manner that these events demonstrated. On such complex and decisive issues, open debate is necessary, productive and likely the only path to a viable solution.