The Randies, the David Project (more on them momentarily), and UCI College Republicans are bringing Daniel Pipes to campus next week.

The David Project is a project of the Israel on Campus Coalition, which in turn is a PR effort designed to promote positive perceptions of the Israeli government on US college campuses.

On the Israel on Campus Coalition:

The group was put together by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which is funding several student programs and has invested a quarter of a million dollars to fund this project.

It hired Wayne Firestone, former director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League, as its director.

Based in Washington, the Israel on Campus Coalition will act as an information-sharing and planning agency for more than 20 Jewish organizations on campus, and a central clearinghouse for students and professionals.

Pro-Israel professionals from the elite consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, offered pro-bono services to assess the key lessons learned from the activities of the past year and the top priorities of each organization for the coming year.

In a document the company submitted to the Israel on Campus Coalition, it stated that the primary goal for this year should be to “take back the campus” by influencing public opinion through lectures, the Internet and coalitions.

It says that to affect public opinion on the campuses, the message should be to “make the case for Israel proactively: Don’t sound defensive about Israel, or argue about specific facts — instead, reframe the debate to emphasize Israel’s long history of democracy, peace and resistance to terror.”

• Pomerance, Rachel. 2002. “Jewish Groups Coordinate Efforts to Help Students ‘Take Back Campus’”. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 28.

On the David Project:

The ICC has a single “affiliate member”: the David Project. The David Project is led by Charles Jacobs, who is a co-founder of CAMERA, the pro-Israel media watchdog group; the founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which calls itself “America’s leading human rights group dedicated to abolishing modern day slavery worldwide”; and, along with Richard Perle, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol, among others, a member of the board of advisers of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The ICC’s website lists a number of “regional ICCs” that receive “strategic advice and guidance” from the Washington headquarters. The regional ICC representative in New York is none other than Rachel Fish, the director of the David Project’s New York office. Jacobs was tight-lipped in a recent interview: He refused to provide details about his financial backers, referring only to unnamed “individuals and foundations”; and he declined to elaborate on the extent to which the David Project receives tactical advice from professional pro-Israel lobbyists and operatives allied with the ICC.

• Sherman, Scott. 2005. “The Mideast Comes to Columbia”. The Nation, April 4.