A former Israeli politician and member of the Israeli Defense Force urged students to advocate for Israel and fight the influence of radical ideologues.

Effi Eitam, a controversial former member of the Israeli Knesset, a brigadier general in the IDF and currently a consultant on infrastructure and energy matters in Israel and overseas, spoke Tuesday to student groups at Cornell University, his third stop on a tour of Northeastern colleges. The tour, called Caravan for Democracy, is a program hosted by the Jewish National Fund to promote support of Israel and encourage students to become engaged in issues of democracy.

In previous stops at Harvard University and the University at Buffalo, his speeches riled some listeners and were met with student protests, the college papers of both universities reported. Eitam has been quoted as calling Israeli Arabs a cancer in the body of the nation, and criticized for his positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, Eitam's events at Cornell, including meetings with students from Cornell Hillel, the Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Center for Jewish Living, and Alpha Epsilon Pi, were not met with student demonstrations.

The main goal of the Caravan is to "provide students on American campuses with true facts about Israel," focusing on Israel's accomplishments in the areas of science, technology, women's rights, and environmental issues, Eitam said.

"I have a feeling that in kind of an odd way, in an era where information is so available - you can (receive it) by e-mail or even travel to Israel so easy - it's happened to be that ignorance about Israel is enormous, and ignorance causes a very shallow approach to problems and very emotional debate, which is not based on fact," Eitam said.

Eitam said peace between Israel and Arab nations is possible, citing Israel's peace with Egypt and the efforts of former Egyptian president Anwar el Sadat as an example.

"Israel is not all about bombs, not all about war, in spite of the fact we are involved with daily effort to defend ourselves" Eitam said. "We did prove the Israeli people are capable of building and maintaining a flourishing community."

Young Jews must reject passivity, become sophisticated consumers of information, and bring others in the arena of discussion about Israel, he said.

He said that among students he has met during the tour there are some who consider Israel an aggressor or negative influence in the Middle East. He argued that this view is erroneous, saying Israel has been a model of democracy for that part of the world.

"Israel is really a bridge for democracy," he said.