Support Palestinian cause, not terrorism
Michael Macaulay
sophomore
In his April 16 column, John Litle claims that to support the Palestinian cause "is necessarily a promotion of terrorism because that is the only method the Palestinians have used to promote their political ends." This is ridiculous. Our president, the United Nations and most of the world support the idea of an independent Palestine made up of pre-1967 war borders. In other words, they support the Palestinian cause. Does this make our president a supporter of terrorism? No. Thus it is possible to support the cause of a people without supporting terrorism.
Mr. Litle's analogy of the Native Americans and the land our ancestors took from them is fallacious. This was indeed a tragedy in our history that Litle himself announces is wrong, but "hundreds of years" have indeed passed and the idea of getting it back is extremely impractical and will never happen. However, in the Middle East, the situation is entirely different. The Palestinians there were kicked out not hundreds of years ago, but 50 years ago, within the memory of many living today, including Ariel Sharon. To say that the Palestinians claim to their land has "long since passed" and compare it to the hundreds of years the Native Americans have been without their land is absurd.
Israel received reparations from Germany after World War II for the Holocaust and to compensate the Jews who fled their homes and never returned. How can Israel accept this compensation and then refuse to offer a similar compensation to those Palestinians who have experienced some of the same offenses Jews experienced in World War II? Because of events over the past 50 years, a physical right to return is now nearly impossible to implement. Yet Israel has still refused to consider compensation in negotiations.
True, Yasser Arafat made a very unwise decision not to accept the peace proposal at Camp David. But the proposal was not as generous as it was made out to be. Barak, the prime minister of Israel at that time, offered a state divided into three big chunks separated by Israeli settlements and control of a few scattered districts in Jerusalem. In order to compensate the Palestinians for the land Israel would keep, Israel offered a chunk of desert not equal in size or quality to that Israel proposed to keep. Most people would agree a state divided into three chunks and completely surrounded by a huge military force would hardly be considered "free and independent."
Litle also dismisses the killing of Palestinian civilians and hints that the "bleeding heart media" is easily duped into believing a dead body is an innocent. Yet in the refugee camp at Jenin, which was recently invaded by the army, no journalists were allowed, especially when claims of summary executions and mass graves were made. No observers were allowed in to disprove this claim, pointing all circumstantial blame at Israel.
One final point: On Oct. 14,1953, Ariel Sharon led a fighting unit into Jordan. Under his command, Israeli soldiers moved about in a village blowing up buildings, firing into doorways and windows with automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades, killing 69 civilians, mostly women and children. He later claimed he believed that the demolished houses had been empty of inhabitants. In 1982, Sharon, then defense minister, organized the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which eventually killed at least 14,000 people, of which over 90 percent have been estimated to be unarmed civilians.
Sharon was found to be indirectly responsible for the massacre of thousands of unarmed Palestinians in a refugee camp. He was never tried for his responsibility in this, only forced to resign his defense post. Sharon's biography is filled with multiple incidents of indiscriminate use of force against unarmed civilians. I encourage anyone to examine the record and see if Sharon is a "man of peace" as Bush has described him. Truly, if Litle considers Arafat a terrorist, then he must necessarily consider Sharon one as well.
Michael Macaulay
sophomore
St. Edward's Hall
April 16, 2002
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, April 17, 2002
