A survey of 250 students in the US who sympathise with the phrase "From the river to the sea" showed that:

[tblue37]

- 53% don't know which river and sea
- 25% never heard of the Oslo Accords
- 10% thought Yasser Arafat was the first prime minister of Israel
- After learning a few basic facts about the Middle East, 68% changed their view, and rejected the popular phrase.

The more you know...

Link to tweet

[lapfog_1]

1. like there are a lot of rivers and seas in the region...

sigh

[LeftInTX]

19. Some responses were Nile, Euphrates and Dead Sea

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-776987

In light of widespread anti-Israel protests across college campuses, students could not name which river and which sea the rallying cry is about.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

In a recent survey of 250 college students across the US, some 86% supported the Palestinian chant “From the river to the sea,” — but only slightly more than half of them (47%) were able to name the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as the boundaries that the slogan is talking about.

Some of the alternative answers were the Nile and the Euphrates rivers, the Dead Sea—and even the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Less than a quarter of these students knew who Yasser Arafat was or what the Oslo Accords were.

After learning a handful of basic facts about the Middle East, two-thirds of the surveyed students went from supporting "from the river to the sea" to rejecting it.

When 80 of the students were shown on regional map that a new Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—leaving no room for Israel—three-fourths if them changed their support to "probably not."

[hlthe2b]

2. I suspected as much. n/t

[CincyDem]

3. No surprise.

Should be an entrance exam at the protest…point to Gaza on a world map. 70% will probably plop it in the Caribbean.

[NCIndie]

4. You don't have to ban books to keep our youth ignorant

[FBaggins]

5. Reads a bit like a push poll...

… but yes. Useful idiots usually are

[usonian]

6. T'is a gift to be free.

Israel free from Netanyahu, and
Palestine free from Hamas.
Ain’t going to happen soon, and neither is any kind of peace.

[Aussie105]

7. The whole situation breeds hard liners. Always has.

Bibi types and his hard faced generals on the Israeli side, Hamas freedom fighters on the Palestinian side.

Hard to think of peace if both sides feel they are fighting for their very survival.
(They need not be.)

As for the IYoA (Ignorant youth of America) - you don't need facts or a study of history of the region to take sides.
In fact being ignorant of facts and history helps with that.
Take sides, have a street march, throw insults and punches at the other side. I'm sure it will help.

[usonian]

8. When I was young, and that was a very long time ago

I liked any rebel cause. Of course, that was easy with the likes of Kissinger supporting brutally repressive regimes all over the world.

Now I know that nobody is free of the powerful and those who want to be powerful, the people be damned.

Even here in the U.S., people stealing from charities. Effin awful.
https://archive.is/ZPTPi

The former president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Sacramento Valley & Northern Nevada has been indicted on federal wire fraud and identity theft charges alleging he diverted $1.4 million from the charity for his own benefit, court papers say.

[enid602]

9. Free

These posts never mention the second part of the chant, namely ‘Palestine will be free.’ You can’t blame them for that.

[NotVeryImportant]

11. Thank you.

[question everything]

10. See here

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016369553

Some of the alternative answers were the Nile and the Euphrates, the Caribbean, the Dead Sea (which is a lake) and the Atlantic.

also

Would learning basic political facts about the conflict moderate students’ opinions? A Latino engineering student from a southern university reported “definitely” supporting “from the river to the sea” because “Palestinians and Israelis should live in two separate countries, side by side.” Shown on a map of the region that a Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, leaving no room for Israel, he downgraded his enthusiasm for the mantra to “probably not.” Of the 80 students who saw the map, 75% similarly changed their view.

[Cheezoholic]

12. JFC were these college students?

Is there a lemon education law? Wow, just wow.

[progree]

13. Oh f**K. Now one has to be an X member to see the replies, or the author's profile

I expected one couldn't post or reply without being a member, but now the site is minimally viewable. GRRRRRR.

[Mosby]

15. It links thru to a wsj article

https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-which-river-to-which-sea-anti-israel-protests-college-student-ignorance-a682463b

I can't read it, but there it is.

[progree]

17. But when I click on "Read 363 Replies" at the bottom of the tweet, it is X that's giving me static,

nothing about having to be a WSJ subscriber. And no indication that Dani Buller has any ties to WSJ. Nothing at all in the tweet about WSJ. Its all about creating an account at X.

So my opinion of X is that its still pretty much unusable unless one joins, and I don't think I'll ever be that desperate.

[progree]

18. I found some Twitter login stuff from more than a year ago, it works with X

so I can peek (and post and respond etc. Uggh, what a moral dilemma)

[progree]

20. I found out my old Twitter login stuff works with X. Some of the replies are amusing

Example:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAvrLr0XwAAo7MC?format=jpg&name=small

Above as an embedded image:

[LeftInTX]

22. Funniest thing I've seen all day!

[LeftInTX]

21. The Jerusalem Post has a non-paywall article. (Although I think there's a grammar error)

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-776987

In light of widespread anti-Israel protests across college campuses, students could not name which river and which sea the rallying cry is about.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

In a recent survey of 250 college students across the US, some 86% supported the Palestinian chant “From the river to the sea,” — but only slightly more than half of them (47%) were able to name the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as the boundaries that the slogan is talking about.

Some of the alternative answers were the Nile and the Euphrates rivers, the Dead Sea—and even the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Less than a quarter of these students knew who Yasser Arafat was or what the Oslo Accords were.

After learning a handful of basic facts about the Middle East, two-thirds of the surveyed students went from supporting "from the river to the sea" to rejecting it.

When 80 of the students were shown on regional map that a new Palestinian state would stretch from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—leaving no room for Israel—three-fourths if them changed their support to "probably not."

[LexVegas]

14. Antisemitic idiots. nt

[Cha]

16. Ask Hamas: 'From the river to the sea' is a call for the destruction of Israel

Less than 24 hours after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack, its representative in Tehran, Khaled Qaddoumi, gave an interview in English to Iran’s Press TV about the “historic event [that] took place in the holy land of Palestine… the Al-Aqsa Flood battle to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea, in order to expel the Zionist regime.”

The following day, he added, in another interview with the IRGC-affiliated Fars News: “We will witness the liberation of the dear homeland of the Palestinian people from the river to the sea, as well as the destruction of the Zionist regime.”

Though the tens of thousands of anti-Israel protesters worldwide chanting “from the river to the sea” fully understand its true meaning, many insist that this phrase is merely an expression of support for the Palestinians and want the world to believe that it is not a call for the destruction of Israel and for killing Jews.

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/jns/ask-hamas-from-the-river-to-the-sea-is-a-call-for-the-destruction-of/article_1a500541-b79e-5ea7-bc75-80984cd19cd2.html

a supporter of Zionism; a person who believes in the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel:

[LeftInTX]

23. Students had never seen a map of the Mideast

In all, after learning a handful of basic facts about the Middle East, 67.8% of students went from supporting “from the river to sea” to rejecting the mantra. These students had never seen a map of the Mideast and knew little about the region’s geography, history or demography. Those who hope to encourage extremism depend on the political ignorance of their audiences. It is time for good teachers to join the fray and combat bias with education.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/from-which-river-to-which-sea-anti-israel-protests-college-student-ignorance-a682463b?reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink