http://www.alligator.org/edit/opinion/issues/02-spring/current/c03letts21.html
Editor: In his column in Tuesday’s Alligator, “Civil unrest threatens Middle East,” Howard Newman accuses Middle Eastern countries of trying to “refocus from the real problem.” Gee, I guess they learned this tactic from Israelis who point to the despotic rulers in Arab regimes whenever someone questions their apartheid tactics.
The fact that tyrants rule these other countries and many of them are in shambles is in no way pertinent to the Palestinian problem. That’s the equivalent of slaveholders demanding better treatment of Indians every time they were accused of oppressing blacks.
Newman further blames the current conflict on the Palestinians because of their refusal of the “generous” Camp David offer. But this offer was as big of a sham as the state of Israel itself.
What Newman neglected to mention was that the offer only included part of the West Bank, a small portion of the land that was originally taken away from the Palestinians. In addition, this land would not have been one chunk. It would have been small plots of land scattered around, with plenty of Israeli settlements and checkpoints in between.
But of course, no Israeli would acknowledge this because it would make their arguments completely baseless, which they are.
Looking at how much land Israel had in the early 1900s and how much they have now clarifies the conflict. Over the years Israel has continued to take Palestinian land all the while claiming they want peace.
But despite what Newman claims, Israel does not work for peace. The truth of the matter is that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon doesn’t want peace any more than he wants to celebrate the Islamic new year, or else he would have stopped targeting innocent Palestinians and demolishing their homes a long time ago.
Sharon has probably killed more civilians than all the suicide bombers combined. By continuing his oppression of the Palestinian people, Sharon himself (and others like him) create these suicide bombers who feel they have nothing else they can do to defend their land and people.
The Palestinians are not the enemy here, but continued oppression of them is. Despite various groups claiming they fight for Palestinian rights, the Palestinians are getting screwed all over.
The Palestinians do want peace, but they won’t settle for any proposal that doesn’t include justice.
Raja Abdulrahim
2JM