Nonie Darwish, the Arab-American founder of Arabs for Israel and author of "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror," spoke to approximately 50 students in Barnum Hall last night.

Darwish discussed topics ranging from women's rights in the Middle East, the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, and the need to empower the moderate Arab voice. She staunchly supports Israel and its fight against the "unending war" waged against it by its Arab neighbors, despite her Arab upbringing.

"[Israel] is a country that deserves our respect, and not our hatred," she said, calling it the "scapegoat" of the Middle East's rage.

Darwish grew up in Gaza City and Cairo in the 1950s and '60s, where she was surrounded by images and sounds of jihad, she said.

Childhood songs, classroom lessons and life lessons all referenced death and martyrdom.

Her father, Mustafa Hafez, was a general in the Egyptian army in Gaza in the 1950s, where he founded the fedayeen, which launched raids across the border into Israel. Around 400 Israelis were killed as a result of the fedayeen's actions.

In 1956, when she was a child, the Israeli Defense Force assassinated Darwish's father in response to his actions in Israel.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser immortalized him in a speech in which he called him a martyr in the struggle against Israel.

It was Sept. 11, 2001, Darwish said, that resolved her to speak out in the name of Arabs in support of the war on terror, America and Israel...