The view of Michigan Avenue from the roof of the Capitol building in Lansing, July 28, 2015. This was the first time that people other than construction workers or government officials were allowed to step out onto the roof of the building. Catherine Ferland/ The State News
—“No deal is better than a bad deal” has become a kind of slogan for Spartans for Israel as they work to communicate their frustrations and disagreement with the negotiations currently taking place regarding the nuclear deal with Iran.
Members of the organization are currently working to inform fellow students and take action against the Iran Deal. Their work goes beyond just campus involvement — they have taken their message to the Capitol where they lobbied for their cause.
“I went ahead and contacted the office and worked with their constituent relations director and he was very helpful and it was very easy which I hope kind of opens up the rest of campus’ eyes about how easy it is to go meet with a senator,” club president and social relations and policy junior Carly Sternberg said.
“We did not meet directly with Senator Peters but we met with his staffer and I think they did a pretty good job of relaying and dictating the message that Spartans for Israel had to say, relaying that to Senator Peters.”
In addition to their lobbying session, Spartans for Israel drafted a leadership statement along with students from the University of Michigan that “explicitly stated that we are against the deal and here are campus leaders that stand behind us and agree with that leadership statement,” Sternberg said.
“That’s a pretty influential document especially in the offices because they get all kinds of different statements and petitions from all kinds of interest groups and lobbying groups in Michigan and it’s a big part of how they determine their decision because that’s straight from their constituency."
Their work involving the Iran Deal is not the only focus of Spartans for Israel, Sternberg said that they work on a variety of projects all aimed toward combating anti-semitism on campus.
"We bring in state speakers and try to raise awareness for anti-semitism on campus because sometimes it can be an implicit thing that you don’t even realize,” Sternberg said.
“Simply just feeling unsafe in an environment where a comment was made or anything like that, we want to raise awareness to prevent that from happening.”
Undecided freshman Rachel Morof, who also lobbied with Spartans For Israel at the Capitol says this kind of political involvement and awareness is crucial, especially from college students.
“They love that we’re college kids coming and that we’re so passionate about the issues,” she said.
“It just shows ‘Ok we had college students take time out of their day to come talk to us and lobby, that shows that it’s really important to them.”
Students looking for more information on Spartans For Israel are encouraged to contact Carly Sternberg at sternb15@msu.edu
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