<p>Interesting. You begin by declaring that you are not a bigot and then proceed to establish quite clearly that, indeed, you are a bigot. You are, of course, entitled to your opinions but by stating essentially that you can’t stand people who accept the Bible as revealed truth–you are admitting to a prejudice against, frankly, the majority of people in America. You cannot accurately describe yourself as a liberal because you appear to be, in fact, very intolerant. </p>
<p>It appears that you very much need a good liberal arts education.</p>
<p>At Brandeis–you will find people with a wide range of views about a lot of things, including Israel and settlement activity. Pro Israel sentiments, not surprisingly, outweigh anti-Israel sentiments but both are easy to find. Also, while @50% of the undergraduates identify themselves as Jewish, their range of observance is quite wide–from purely secular to ultra orthodox. I would guess that the number of undergraduates who would justify building settlements in the West Bank solely because G-d gave the land to Jews as part of the Covenant is relatively small. I would also guess that the number of undergraduates who would cite the Bible as one of a number of considerations to justify settlement activity would be far greater.</p>
<p>These other considerations are many, including: the Balfour Declaration; the treaty which, at the end of WWI, created the British Mandate over Palestine; the fact that, under international law, the West Bank is not occupied territory but rather disputed territory (i.e., the Palestinians never had soverignty over it; the Israelis captured it from Jordan in 1967 but Jordan has relinquished any claim to the territory); the Oslo Accords, which created the peace process, do not prohibit building in the West Bank; and why should Palestinians expect to have a state which is free of Jews? Israel grants full citizenship rights to over 1 million Muslim Arabs. Personally, I believe that these considerations are more important than the Biblical claim (the Bible is not a land deed) but I also don’t think you can ignore the Bible. Even if you don’t accept the Bible as revealed truth–both the Bible and archeology comfirm the history that this part of the Middle East was occupied by Jews for a very long time–and that the West Bank (or Judaea and Summara, to use the ancient names) was part of the ancient Jewish State.</p>
<p>Again, you are entitled to your opinion but I would hope that your opinion is formed only after an open-minded consideration of all of the facts and differing points of view.</p>