SCHOOL FORGES RELATIONSHIP WITH DAVID PROJECT TO TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT ISRAEL
By Emily Miller

“What do you guys do for fun at King’s?” When confronted with this question, I’m always tempted to respond with something like, “We sit around and discuss political philosophy and the fine points of Christian theology.” While that’s not entirely true, we talk a lot about ideas that sometimes seem removed from daily life. Thankfully, we do have plenty of opportunities to discuss these ideas in the context of current issues.

One such issue, which hasn’t been much addressed among King’s students, is the Arab-Israeli conflict. That’s why the school is in the process of establishing a relationship with the David Project, a Jewish educational non-profit that promotes a “fair and honest understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict.” Headquartered in Boston, the organization has a New York branch with which King’s has been in contact. Although the David Project is Jewish, it reaches out to Christian colleges with the aim of educating Christian students so they can help spread an understanding of the real situation, since schools, the church, and the western media have all distorted the real situation, said senior Anthony Randazzo, who has been working with the David Project’s Christian campus coordinator to organize a speaking event at King’s. He recently asked freshman Miranda Brandt to assist him, since his schedule is tightening as graduation draws closer.

On the 22nd, Davis and another staffer, Australian Jew David Dabscheak, came to King’s to talk about the Arab-Israeli conflict with students. The conflict is misrepresented in three dimensions, Dabscheak said in a 90-minute presentation: physical, historical, and moral. Physically and visually, the American media represents the conflict as limited to the state of Israel, neglecting to zoom their maps out far enough to show that other countries in the Mesopotamian region, most of North Africa, and the entire Arabian Peninsula are involved. As to history, Dabscheak said that all nation-states are artificial creations, not just Israel, and listed several reasons defending the Jewish homeland’s legitimacy. Morally, the United Nations condemns Israel as a human-rights violator and ignores atrocities in places like Sudan and North Korea, while the media glosses over Israel’s free society (unique in the Middle East) as well as her enemies’ indoctrination of children in favor of violence.

The David Project takes its name, logically enough, from King David. The David and Goliath motifexpresses the magnitude of their broader educational task, but they also appeal to David’s character for another aspect of their mission: leadership education through a Campus Fellows summer program in Boston. The trip is free, except for a security payment of $100 to prevent the waste of buying flights for students who don't show. They would like to see a contingent of King’s students attend this summer, Davis said.

For Boston trip info e-mail: LM@davidproject.org