On May 14th, University of Chicago Friends of Israel (UCFI), a CAMERA-supported EMET for Israel group, hosted Dr. Jonathan Schanzer on campus. Dr. Schanzer is the vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former terrorism finance analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Dr. Schanzer delivered a lecture on Palestinian governance based on his book, State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State. He eloquently argued that the main obstacle to Palestinian statehood is not necessarily Israel’s intransigence, but the Palestinian Authority’s ineptitude. Dr. Schanzer drew examples from history and even the most recent events to support his argument. He claimed that there has yet to be a Mandela or Gandhi equivalent in Palestinian leadership. And until we see that, prospects for a viable Palestinian state remain bleak.
Dr. Schanzer’s lecture was packed to maximum capacity. For the first time in UCFI history, we had to borrow ten additional chairs from neighboring classrooms. Overall, the event was a great success, and UCFI greatly appreciates CAMERA’s generous support.
