Dr Ronnie Fraser is an independent scholar and Director of the Academic Friends of Israel. He was awarded his doctorate in 2014 by Royal Holloway College, London for his research into the British trade union movement and their attitude to Israel between 1945 and 1982.
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.