At the annual debate hosted by Northwestern’s Debate Team against the British National Debate Team this past Monday, the topic of debate was whether the U.S. should withdraw financial and political support of Israel. When asked the reasons why this topic was chosen, the British debate team responded that the Israel-Arab conflict was one of the most pressing international problems of our time and that the subject should be discussed as much as possible to find a solution.

Now the conflict is no doubt one of the most important international concerns and should be discussed often. But this venue was not the right time or place. Considering the current global turmoil, both teams could have chosen a more relevant topic to debate. At a time when our country is fiercely debating a whole host of extremely divisive issues such as healthcare and education and economic policy, it’s unfortunate that our debate program chose to argue about one of the truly bipartisan issues of our time. Protecting and aiding Israel is something that almost every congressman and both presidential candidates strongly support and agree on.

-TALYA MIZRAHIWeinberg juniorOutreach Chair, Students for Israel