Another "League of Trembling Israelites" Moment

The "League of Trembling Israelites", as I was taught by Malvyn Benjamin, is that peculiar phenomenen of Jewish self-induced fear that attempts to avoid a situation that already exists, is doing damage and by their actions, supposedly soothingly assuaging, only make matters worse and never corrects it.

Case in point:

In a move that raised student ire, Erin Stalcup, a departing adjunct professor of English at Yeshiva, signed an open letter to President Obama calling upon him to cease his support of Israel’s “apartheid regime” and her “flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions.”

The letter...likens the state of Israel to the racist regime of South Africa in the 1980’s, comparing their oppression of the black population to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians...It summarized by contending, “Every one of these acts is a crime against humanity. In their ensemble, they constitute one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times.”

Though the letter was composed and signed in January, it only reached the attention of the collective YU student body midway through last week – due to one student’s incidental discovery of it on the internet...

Alexander Fischman, head of YU’s SAIPEC, circulated a petition signed by a number of student leaders calling on President Joel to denounce Prof. Stalcup for her comments. An AIPAC representative, however, successfully pressed Fischman to stop the petition, arguing that the petition would draw more attention to the letter and not result in a useful contribution.