Israel studies courses and chairs have been proliferating in recent years in American universities Through Israel studies courses and their instructors, contact takes place between Israeli and American individuals and societies. This academic contact is not limited to the physical dimension, since in the academic context, knowledge production in the form of books and articles is itself an arena where ideas are presented and contact happens in the virtual dimension. This is why the concept of academic contact is suggested for describing this specific type of interaction and a new way of looking into how sympathy towards a political entity can be generated amongst the educated population of a second country. Keywords: Contact theory, academic contact, Israel studies, the United States Introduction 1.Whilst there has always been talk of the strong political relationship between America and Israel, the cultural and social dimensions of the relationship are often overlooked 1 . Universities are important playing fields for Israel advocates since they are the intersection of the general public with the elite; whilst students usually come from different backgrounds, they are training to become tomorrow's decision makers, opinion makers and leaders. Another reason why they pay special attention to universities is that criticism and questioning often starts from this realm. ("A Burning Campus? Rethinking Israel Advocacy at America's Universities and Colleges," 2012, p. 7).The current article aims to answer the question of how Israel studies as an academic discipline is applied by Israel advocates to influence the way the regime is perceived by Americans.The promotion of Israel studies courses, centers and chairs filled by Israeli and American scholars in American universities, which has steadily grown in previous years (M. Bard, 2008) and (Koren & Fishman, 2015), can be viewed as the response of these advocates to the challenges that they have perceived in this realm. Israel studies as an academic field should also be viewed as a response to the perceived pro-Palestinian bias, or, at least, lack of academic and impartial discussion of Israel in Middle Eastern studies centers (M. G. Bard, 2004;Coalition, 2007;Koren & Einhorn, 2010), . To this must be added the fact that Israel is quite different to other area studies courses in the US which are usually funded by the government, in that they are mostly funded by private donors and organizations. Literature Review 2.All the mentioned facts make Israel studies an interesting and exceptional case of area studies, but despite this, few
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