Last week, the Student Union Senate indefinitely postponed discussion on a resolution sponsored by five senators to wish Israel a happy 60th birthday.Many senators argued that it was not the Senate's place to discuss such an issue and that such a vote might unintentionally hurt some students' feelings. Because of the diverse makeup of the Brandeis community, "anything kind of having to do with Israel sort of automatically becomes somewhat controversial," Senator for Massell Quad Andrew Litwin '11, who voted against the resolution, said.

"We're really there in my opinion as a student government to work and discuss issues directly pertaining to the functioning of Brandeis University," Litwin said, saying that the Senate's discussion on the resolution drifted towards personal politics, distracting from the issue at hand and the correct focus of the senate.

However, Senator for the Class of 2008 Asher Tanenbaum, one of the resolution's sponsors, said the intention was not to express support for political policies of the Israeli government, but rather to express "the general feeling on campus that students want to wish [Israel] a happy birthday [and that] they understand that there is a deep connection between the school and themselves and Israel."

The resolution's sponsors hoped to fulfill suggested goals for college campuses set by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and express the interests of their constituents, according to Tanenbaum, also the president of the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee and Senator-at-Large Andrew Brooks '09, Campus Curriculum Coordinator for BIPAC.

During the Senate meeting, Noam Shouster '11, a Jewish Israeli from a mixed Jewish-Arab town, spoke out against the resolution. "I think it doesn't represent the whole Brandeis community," she said. The Senate is a place to discuss housing and dining ... and I was really proud to see how some of the Senate members were able to distinguish between their feelings and what to do on Senate professionally."

One of BIPAC's goals is to encourage college campuses around the country to recognize the 60-year existence of Israel, Brooks said. Other goals for BIPAC are to educate the community about the threat of nuclear proliferation in Iran and threats to Israel from Hamas and Hezbollah, militant Islamic groups in the region, he said.

While BIPAC is not officially affiliated with AIPAC, the Brandeis group plans to participate in a one-day lobbying training program in Washington D.C. in April that is organized by AIPAC, Tanenbaum explained. The seminar will include speakers as well as meetings with AIPAC representatives and members of Congress, he said.

BIPAC had hoped to communicate the successful passage of such a resolution in those meetings "to show our congressmen that Israel is still an issue that people care about at Brandeis," Tanenbaum said.

Tanenbaum added that passage of the resolution would show the University's Jewish donors the existence of a deep affinity to Israel among Brandeis students.

The resolution noted that Brandeis was also founded 60 years ago. In addition, it pointed out that University President Jehuda Reinharz is a native of Israel and that many Brandeis students study abroad there during or after their time at the University.

"I think that resolutions in general are supposed to have some advocacy implications for the Brandeis community," Senator for Charles River Apartments Rachel Graham Kagan '09 said, adding that this was not true of this resolution. "This campus has very, very strong views on Israel both for and against, and it really shouldn't be the place of the Student Union to be commenting on Israel."

At the beginning of the debate, the bill's supporters struck a paragraph from the resolution stating that "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and strives for peace with its neighbors at every opportunity."

"I think people were reading too much too much into the resolution and made it into a controversial thing when it shouldn't have been, ... if you actually followed the text," Brooks said. Tanenbaum noted that the student government senate of the University of California at Berkeley and University of Oklahoma passed similar resolutions.

Brooks said that students had the right to know what their elected officials' positions were on Israel and that such a vote was a way for the Senate to be in touch with the student body.

He added that the Senate had a responsibility to support clubs in this way and referred to a recent Senate resolution supporting the goals of the ONE campaign, which seeks to eradicate extreme poverty. He called for the Senate to treat the four pillars of the University equally. The Brandeis Web site describes those four pillars as "dedication to academic excellence," "nonsectarianism," "commitment to social action" and sponsorship by the Jewish community. "ONE Brandeis . reflected more on the social justice pillar of this University," he said. "I feel like people were interested in simply just ignoring this pillar, [sponsorship by the Jewish community] and how much [Jews] have given to this University.