I felt a compelling and instant need to respond to Jay Upton’s piece which I found to be offensive. Asking the Palestinian Authority to crackdown on terrorism is neither an impossible task nor an unreasonable request. In my eyes, it should be a demand. I feel this way not just as a Jew, an American or a female but as a member of the human race.
The Terrorist Organization is not working for the Palestinian people. If Jay had done more research, he would have found that an overwhelming amount of the Palestinian people do not support terrorism and are afraid of these terrorists just like the Israelis and the rest of the world. The statistics and research are in; the majority of Palestinians are against terrorism. The Palestinian government may not want peace but the people do. They do not look up to these terrorists or support them. The extremists, haters and elite do. That is a minority of the people. These terrorists do not protect anyone, that is not there mission and they will tell you that openly. They destroy people, homes, families and the chance of peace. They take small boys and girls from their homes and train them to kill. They train them to throw rocks at tanks and stage them to look like the victim. Every person that dies because of this conflict is a victim, even the terrorists themselves. There is constant civilian unrest in both places regardless of terrorism and the peace process can not gain momentum as long as buses are being blown up, people are being killed and hatred is thriving in the region.
Jay’s example of the United States and the EU is, in my eyes, absurd. First of all, yes, the Marines are looked up to as heroes. They are a formed, accepted part of a legal Army. All countries should and most do have armies. An army is not the same thing as a terrorist group. I hope we all know that. Secondly, the EU would never make that demand. It is unrealistic. I am banking on the fact that as students in a college University, we see that this comparison is silly.
Israel is not perfect, no country or group of people are. But to say that they are not working toward peace is again an unfair and incorrect statement. Israel is currently moving entire towns of her people out of their homes, willingly and unwillingly, in the new and controversial withdrawal plan. Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister is getting heavy criticism from his people for taking this drastic step, yet he feels it necessary to do in the hopes of peace. When Yassar Arafat was alive, he met with then Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David and was offered everything he has asked for, yet he turned the offer down. Israelis were furious with Barak. They said he was going beyond compromise. He agreed; he was going for peace. Arafat not only rejected the offer but did not even offer a counter offer. What does this say about the Palestinian efforts for peace?
Israel has always been willing to try and negotiate peace talks. There are numerous documented occasions throughout the last 50 years that demonstrate that. Asking that terrorism stop is not an unreasonable request, it is an obligatory one.
Unfortunately it is a painful and heart wrenching cycle that does not seem to be ending but peace is in sight. If you believe and if you do your part, whether you are an Israeli, a Palestinian, an American or just a college student writing a column, anything can happen. I hope Jay will understand that and promote a more positive and intellectual column the next time around.
If anyone is interested in becoming more informed, read The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz. In a University that is extremely underrepresented by Jews and very strongly represented by the Arab world, it is easy to see how we only see one side of the story. But as we all know, there are always two sides to every story. It is worth hearing them both. Believe me.–Janna Goldstein
Dear Janna,*Sigh*What I am about to do is what I refer to as “The Brown Person’s Burden”-which means that brown people all over the world are always left with the task of educating Americans who are misinformed about the brown peoples of the world, allowing us the opportunity to speak for ourselves.As I am an American Muslim of Arab descent, I feel I am able to offer you some insight.
To begin with, if you ask anyone in the world, regardless of their nationality, religion, or ethnic group, they will tell you that they are not only against terrorism, but that they fear it. That is any human’s natural reaction to violence and force-Arab or Jew.
Moreover, I am not certain where you got your “statistics and research,” but if you had looked at the statistics after January’s presidential and municipal elections in Palestine, you would have noticed that Hamas received an overwhelming majority of the votes for local positions all over Palestine by the Palestinian people. Hamas, need I remind you, according to American and Israeli definition and labeling, is a terrorist organization.
You need to remember that one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter and vice versa. To drive that point, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is seen as an occupying and therefore, terroristic force by Palestinians.
Furthermore, the rocks that the Palestinian civilians throw at IDF soldiers and tanks cannot be compared to the sophisticated weaponry of the IDF forces. However, after acknowledging that, we should not condone fighting violence with violence either.
Where exactly does the truth lie? I cannot tell you that. For the Palestine/Israel story is much too complicated. Therefore, to say that there are 2 sides to this story is oversimplifying the situation.Here is what I can tell you: as it has been pointed out that there are many sides to one story, my colleague Jay Upton, in his column “Israel and Palestine…Yet Again” presented one of the many sides to the situation, as you have done. Just because you do not agree with his perspective does not mean that he is not engaging in an intellectual and meaningful exchange. Your remarks about him are entirely and completely offensive.