[8] She has said the turning point for her came during the Second Intifada, when she observed what she perceived as distorted media portrayal of the conflict, specifically following the murders of Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran.

[30] Rothstein says that SWU does not advocate specific policy positions[20][31][26] and that its goal is merely to inform[8] and "counter the vicious anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda campaign" by educating the public about Israel.

[48][49] The organization offers two one-year programs to train students in pro-Israel activism,[20][50] distributes pamphlets and "fact sheets" on Israel, and sets up pro-Israeli lectures.

[76] The group was also involved in the Maccabee Task Force, an eight-college-campus initiative by Sheldon Adelson with the goal of finding effective ways to combat BDS and antisemitism.

[82][83] In May 2007, the pro-Palestinian U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation placed 20 poster ads in the Washington, D.C. subway system showing a tank with its turret pointing at a child with a school bag.

The Breaking the Silence ads targeted tourists visiting Israel to attend Eurovision, and juxtaposed an image of an Israeli beach with the West Bank security barrier.

[64] In September 2007, SWU sponsored a protest against Columbia University, which had invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak as part of its World Leaders Forum.

[82][89] In November 2016, to protest the resolutions passed by UNESCO which denied Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem, SWU erected a massive Pinocchio effigy near the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

[90] In April 2021, SWU organized a protest outside the French Consulate in Los Angeles demanding justice for Sarah Halimi after the man who killed her was acquitted.

[91] Four Roman Catholic orders of nuns and the pro-Palestinian group Jewish Voice for Peace planned in 2005 to introduce a resolution at a Caterpillar shareholder meeting.

[93] The campaign was not perceived to be effective in discouraging policymakers from attending, given the conference's greater-than-expected turnout, with the attendees including several members of Congressmen and National Security Advisor General James Jones.

[26] On November 14, Robin Dubner, Michael Harris, and eight other SWU activists disrupted a local Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) meeting in Berkeley.

[98] SWU and the Center for Combatting Anisemitism sent a letter to UC Merced asking it to take action regarding a professor who made tweets they labeled as antisemitic.

[100] SWU called on Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to apologize for his participation as the keynote speaker at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in Orlando, Florida.

SWU's CEO stated that a sitting U.S. member of Congress attending a white-supremacist conference legitimizes racism and antisemitism, and she urged the Republican Party leadership to distance itself from Gosar, paralleling the actions taken against former Congressman Steve King for his racist comments.

SWU also alleged that the university failed to properly investigate previous complaints against Sheehi, and cited private tweets of hers critical of Israel and Zionism, which she defended as a reflection of her anger at Israeli military actions and occupation.

[9] In January 2010, SWU sent a group of seven delegates to Harbin, China to showcase an exhibition entitled "Inside Israel", in the organization's first outreach venture in the country.

"[109] In 2016, the group dispatched an airplane that flew over the venue of a Roger Waters' set at Desert Trip, displaying the message, "Support Israel-Palestine Peace — Not Hateful Boycotts.

"[110] In 2020, SWU criticized President Donald Trump's choice of retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor to oversee US-German relations and called for a new nominee to serve as ambassador.

[112] In February 2021, SWU launched letter-writing campaign to Che and Saturday Night Live condemning a joke made about Israel only vaccinating "the Jewish half" of its population.

[114] SWU holds a number of annual gatherings, including a "Festival of Lights" gala, which raises funds to combat antisemitism and has drawn over a thousand attendees each year,[115][116] and an "Israel in Focus" International Conference.

[8] Judy Maltz of Haaretz has noted that "of all the pro-Israel forces active on U.S. college campuses today, none has poured as much energy, resources and sheer audacity into the battle for the hearts and minds of young Americans as StandWithUs".

[139] Steven M. Cohen, Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College, has expressed his concern over the negative impact of SWU's attitude on Israel.

Cohen emphasizes the importance of having vocal Zionists from diverse ideological backgrounds, including those on the far left, as well as right-wing groups such as the Hilltop Youth, in order to succeed in the public relations battle.

[27] David Biale has stated that a paternalistic approach worsens the situation as it prevents students from learning to stand up for themselves and makes them feel as if they're being manipulated.

[8] In their 2009 publication The Trial of Israel's Campus Critics, David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi assert that the thirty-three organizations comprising Israel on Campus Coalition, which include SWU along with AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Congress, the Jewish National Fund, are not interested in "the niceties of intellectual exchange and academic process", and that they prioritize tactics such as insinuation, accusation, and defamation over fostering intellectual dialogue and academic processes when responding to arguments and criticisms related to Israeli policies.

[141][142] In 2014 Israeli columnist Bradley Burston criticized SWU for what he considered question-begging assertions passed off as facts in materials used by the organization to teach college students about Israel.

[143] According to an October 2009 investigation by Inter Press Service, SWU has received funds from a "web of funders who support organisations that have been accused of anti-Muslim propaganda and encouraging a militant Israeli and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

[145][146] SWU's approach has been dismissed as "too apologetic" by Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, who states that "presenting Israel as the victim of Arab aggression is impossible.

[a][150][151] Ian Lustick has argued that StandWithUs manipulates statistics on Palestinian demography in order to buttress continued Israeli occupation and settlement of the West Bank.