It’s only the first week of second semester, but the Penn Israel Coalition’s agenda is already brimming with Israel-related events, speakers, and pedagogic material.
Their first meeting of the semester took place in Steinhardt Hall (the Penn Hillel) on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. A humble showing of twelve students, mostly freshmen, attended the forty-five minute conference. The session primarily served to present an overview of the events planned for the semester and request for volunteers to assist in their preparation, and to generate more ideas for Israel advocacy on campus.
The Coalition has assembled an impressive list of speakers for the semester. Aryeh Green, an adviser to Natan Sharansky, comes to Penn
 on Monday, January 29 to address human rights, freedom, and the “apartheid fallacy” in Israel and the Middle 
East. Nonie Darwish is speaking at an undetermined date about her experiences both as a female Palestinian journalist and as the daughter of a martyr.
Then, Walid Shoebat, a former PLO terrorist, will discuss his life, why he renounced terrorism, and why he’s “on Israel’s side.” The date for Shoebat’s arrival is also currently undetermined.
Walid Phares, Senior Fellow at the Center for Defense of Democracies and a Lebanese Christian who has testified before Congress, is scheduled for sometime in February to discuss radical Islamic terror, and to encourage moderate Muslims to speak out. In early April, PIC will be hosting a panel discussion about Iran, 
Israel and America, featuring panelists from the moderate Avery Goldstein
 to the right-wing Daniel Pipes, with a left-wing speaker to be decided.
The meager attendance at the meeting does not imply weakness in man-power—-among the Jewish students who are active in Penn’s Hillel, the vast majority are active supporters of the Penn Israel Coalition. Many of the volunteers for the scheduled events were not present at the meeting on Sunday, but PIC keeps its membership updated through its listserv.