Earlier, I linked to Michigan Daily editor Christopher Zbrozek’s article calling Middle East discourse “the worst debate on campus.”
Here is a recent article from the University of Michigan paper, and the letter written in response - part of the debate that Zbrozek says is “useless.”
First, senior Shimaa Abdelfadeel calls Israel a “flawed democracy” and calls for divestment:

Promoters of Zionism tout its democracy, which offers legal protection to all. There exists, however, a gap between theory and practice that has bred racial apartheid within Israeli society and between Israel and its occupied populations in Palestine. In a state that asserts the dominance of one religious persuasion, democracy cannot really flourish. By failing to protect a plurality of ethnic and religious groups, the Israeli government exposes non-Jewish populations to persecution in a variety of ways. Israeli political leaders like Avigdor Lieberman, who was recently promoted deputy prime minister, explicitly support the ethnic cleansing of Arab populations as a way of preserving the Jewish majority in Israel.
[…]
The end of Israeli occupation and an overhaul of Israel’s exclusionary state are prerequisites to a just solution. The UN General Assembly recently condemned the attacks in Gaza, but the United States vetoed a similar resolution in the Security Council, thus exerting American power to excuse its ally’s atrocities. But massive American military aid also facilitates Israeli crimes. Our university is complicit too through its investments in arms companies that provide Israel its arsenal. Divesting from these companies would allow our campus to invest in just outcomes rooted in equality and lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians.

Juniors Nate Fink and David Kurzmann respond:

We simply do not have the word allotment to address all of the fallacies that have become disturbingly familiar on this campus.
First and foremost, Hamas - the democratically elected government of the Palestinians - is an internationally recognized terrorist organization supported by the authoritarian regimes of Syria and Iran. Hamas is sworn to the destruction of the state of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of its Jewish population.
In fact, just weeks after Israel’s August 2005 disengagement from Gaza - a painful concession for peace - Hamas responded with Qassam rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns. Continuing this trend, this past weekend Palestinian terrorists violated a cease-fire with rocket attacks shortly after an agreement was reached. What is Israel to do?
Most recently, Hamas has adopted a tactic made famous by Hezbollah over the summer: brainwashing civilians to act as human shields encircling terrorist homes targeted by Israel. This tactic is far from peaceful resistance; it is a human rights abuse. Israel must protect its citizens and do what the Palestinian government has failed to do: dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, a universally recognized prerequisite for peace.
The University should be proud to invest in Israel, America’s only time-tested democratic ally in the Middle East.
We must recognize that true education about the situation in the Middle East is not found in misleading viewpoints on the pages of The Michigan Daily.

One gets the sense of an endless battle being waged on the op-ed page…