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By Alan Levine

UC Santa Barbara has long been one of Hasbara Fellowships’ most successful campuses.  We have hired two UCSB grads (including yours truly) as full time campus coordinators.  We have had over a dozen Hasbara Fellows in the last five years there including three presidents of American Students for Israel, student government representative, and one Hillel president.

One area of success for Santa Barbara’s pro-Israel activists has been the ability to publish educational, well researched articles in the university daily newspaper on a consistent basis. During Operation Cast Lead, Hasbara Fellows published five articles in the student newspaper.

• Israel Must Protect Itself, Alan Levine, UCSB class of ‘09
• Gaza Display Misrepresents Truth, Alan Levine, UCSB class of ‘09
• A.S. Resolution on Gaza Manipulates their Power, Maya Liss, UCSB class of ‘09
• Israel’s Efforts in Gaza Could Lead to Peace, Maya Liss, UCSB class of ‘09
• Hamas Terror Threatens any Peaceful solution, Steven Begakis, UCSB class of '12
• Counting Down the Gaza Crisis, Ari Solomon, UCSB class of ‘10

Last week at UCSB, in the face of a failed but offensive anti-Israel “Freedom for Gaza” week, pro-Israel activists responded with their pens yet again.

• Israeli Tech Aids Western Progress, Max Samarov, UCSB class of ‘11
• False Body Count Numbers Disguise Political Agenda, Matthew Gluschankoff, UCSB class of ‘14
• Israel Global Innovation and Democracy, Elad Menna, UCSB class of ‘14

Effective use of campus media is a very important part of winning the battle for Israel’s good name on campuses. Most students read their university’s daily, and get a lot of information from it. But Pro-Israel activists, however, are often intimidated by anti-Israel bias and have often given up on working with campus media. But UCSB has clearly shown that it is possible to voice your beliefs on campus clearly, effectively, and often.