By: Rebecca Sterling

Over the last couple of weeks, pro-Israel advocates have been extremely active in spreading facts and knowledge across hundreds of campuses. Armed with resources and training from Hasbara Fellowships, students in Florida geared up to face the challenges of September.

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From Miami to Tallahassee, the message was clear; Israel wants peace.

Shalom FIU at Florida International University and Owls for Israel at Florida Atlantic University worked hard to put the issues in perspective by introducing “Friend Request Pending” and bringing Ishmael Khaldi (Israel’s 1^st high ranking Muslim Bedouin Diplomat) to their campuses. With help from the Milstein Coalition Building Grant, they each hosted a Campus Leaders Banquet where students representing many diverse organizations on campus enjoyed a dinner with a high profile speaker, including Congressman Ted Deutch. Brooke Weinbaum describes the group's success, "I spoke about "Real Partners, Real Peace",  how we as leaders need to make responsible, educated decisions, and then showed the "Friend Request Pending" video. At the end of the dinner many people came up to the different OFI leaders and said they cannot wait to work with us."

Students for Israel at UCF and Noles for Israel at FSU took action to end the support of the anti-semetic Durban 3 Conference and raise support for the Jewish State during the night to honor Israel. Almost every major Florida school has participated in Friend Request Pending, leading to heightened interest in the Pro-Israel movement. Moreover, we would like to congratulate Gators for Israel at University of Florida for passing a bill within the Student Government against the Palestinian Unilateral Declaration of Statehood.

Florida’s pro-Israel activists were as dedicated as ever and really pulled together to set the stage for discussion based on facts, keeping their campuses engaged and well informed. Through their educational initiatives, these groups effectively publicized Israel’s efforts towards meaningful peace through bilateral negotiations. All over the country, Israel advocates are putting in a great amount of time and effort to successfully support this timely cause. With such committed activism, there is more hope for people to understand the need for the Palestinian leadership to come to the negotiation table for peace to be achieved. Keep up the excellent work!