What is the point of Ethics classes? Do they actually make people more ethical (and if so, is it ethical brain wash people?), or are they mostly used to pad out classes so that the philosophy department also gets some money?

I took an ethics class in college taught by the computer science department. It definitely wasn't an ethical indoctrination, as much of "here is what ethics is, here are the basic frameworks, and here's why it matters to programming."

I took one for bioengineering

It was more so that we all understood that the people who used the fruits of our labor were trusting our knowledge of engineering with their own lives, in the hopes of preventing tragedies such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

but yes if you failed the class, you didn't get the degree

They teach and discuss what ethics are, to me it was an invaluable series of courses (psychology in general). As was Critical Thinking and Journalism. I highly recommend them all.

I don't understand your comment. Initially you suggest that this was not so bad considering the other things they have done... suggesting that their standards were different to some. Then you go on to say they have the same moral standards as _person_on_street_. This seems contradictory?

When the leader of another country is on record calling for your genocide and actively pursuing weapon programs that can make that a reality—you might have slightly different standards on how far you might be willing to go for protection than other countries that do not have countries calling for their genocide.

Since WW2 the Jewish people tend to operate under the philosophy of “When someone tells you he wants to kill you, you should take them seriously” because the last leader of a country who decided to kill them and make an effort of it, managed to eliminate 2/3 of the jews that resided in Europe and about 40% of them worldwide.

I think that even though I am not Jewish, if I had that history and the current regional political climate…I probably wouldn’t bat an eye at a robot sniper since my moral standards would be shaped by a very real and very recent effort to wipe me off the earth. That could change a perspective and standard.

And I realize that Israel is not just Jews, but does anyone really believe that the phrase “Death to Israel” means “Death to the Arabs living there too”?

I don't see how that addresses the comment at all. You appear to be saying that Israel is correct for having different moral standards. That does not seem to address the conflict in the comment above

No, I am not saying that Israel is correct or not because the morality here is completely subjective. There is no correct and there is no incorrect.

Israel’s different moral standards are a reasonable human response for THEM because of the history of genocide attempted on the Jewish people and the present day threats of genocide that are still being made against them.

So in that sense, I believe they do have a probable similar moral standard as the average man on the street, because the average man on the street would likely take any step necessary and within their means to prevent a genocide from being committed against them, especially if an attempted genocide just recently happened to them.