Tanks and violence will not solve Palestinian conflict
Daniel Tyszka
sophomore
I am writing in response to John Litle's April 16 column. I am far from an enraged liberal, but I am not about to sit back and let someone say that Palestinians should be happy with what they have. Indeed the efforts at Camp David failed; Arafat was not about to give that much ground both figuratively and literally. He is the leader of a people and he is their representative.
One cannot expect him to take a deal that is unfair to him. It is even more ridiculous to say that because he did not take that deal, he should get nothing instead. There is no way that the Palestinians are going to be happy with the situation right now. They have nothing, and they are facing genocide at the hands of the Israeli army.
Comparing the Palestinians to the Native Americans is almost humorous. I particularly enjoyed his hypothesis of a descendant of a Native American entering the bedrooms of our children and murdering them. The analogy almost works except that the Native Americans had their land taken away 200 years ago and the Palestinians had their land taken away after the war in 1948 and 1949. There are still people alive in Palestine who remember what happened during their lifetime. The conflict between modern day Native Americans differs in that it is almost too far in the past to rectify the situation. This is not the case with Palestine. The wrongs can still be corrected.
Mr. Litle, I do believe the Palestinian citizens have the right to wage war when their police forces and military are being slaughtered execution-style and their leader is being held up in a bombed-out building. Are the Palestinians terrorists? Yes. Are the Israelis terrorists? Yes. This cannot be overlooked.
America does need to step in and I think we, the United States, along with the United Nations, have every right to pressure Israel into backing off. What good will come of a sound defeat in the Holy Land by the Israeli army? I can assure you that absolutely nothing will be gained except greater contempt by the Arab nations for Israel and for the U.N. The U.N. exists to protect human rights worldwide. It exists to stop genocide. It exists to bring peace to this world. Allowing the Israeli army to bulldoze homes of innocent citizens and militants alike is allowing the Israeli army to declare war upon Palestinian citizens but now allowing them to fight back.
Mr. Litle opens his letter with a statement regarding how terrorism will never lead to political change. I would just like to remind him that our country won its independence with militias and guerrilla warfare. Things do change, but it can take longer than desired to achieve these goals.
The Israeli government and military is not allowing the Palestinians to even attempt to wage a fair war or to establish a government for that matter. Right now, everything is on the side of Israel and there really is no wonder as to why suicide bombers continue their campaigns. All it would take to bring peace to the Holy Land is a concerted effort by both sides to stop the fighting and the only way to get Israel to do that is to put pressure on them. The conflict needs to be resolved and it is not going to be done by allowing Israel to roll its tanks through Palestinian cities.
Daniel Tyszka
sophomore
Sorin Hall
April 16, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, April 17, 2002
