The Badger Herald: Opinion: VerStandig not right

Opinion

VerStandig not right

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By Letters to the Editor
Friday, September 17, 2004 12:00 a.m.

5 Vote 0 Votes

My goodness, the mass interest generated by these types of intriguing stories must have the Herald going off the shelves like hotcakes! I mean, really, why report on relevant issues being addressed by ASM campaigns and committees like state budget woes, voter turnout, campus climate or accessibility obstacles when we can read such salacious stories as this one about the student judiciary? I am a dorky student government type, but even I failed to understand how reporting on Mr. Vogel’s frustrations could possibly be considered campus-wide news. Oh, yawn.

Emily McWilliams

ekmcwilliams@students.wisc.edu

In his latest column (“Two Roads Diverged” — Sept. 14), Max VerStandig writes off the Palestinians’ historical connection to the land comprising present-day Israel by arguing, “‘Palestinians’ have been around for a shorter period of time than Major League Baseball.” So where exactly did they come from? Were they not living on the land that currently comprises Israel for centuries prior to their dispossession in 1948? VerStandig would do himself good to read a history book.

Yet even if we were to accept the perversions of history throughout his column as fact, there still remains a blatant and striking absence of logic in his rationale. Namely, refugees’ rights to their native lands are not national rights, but natural rights. Surely one’s right to live on his land, codified in countless tenets of human rights and international law, existed prior to the advent of nations and nationalism. Whether VerStanding believes that Palestinians exist as a distinct national group is therefore irrelevant; the operative fact here is that hundreds of thousands of individuals (whether you call them Palestinians, Arabs, Canaanites, etc.) were dispossessed of their domicile upon the founding of Israel in 1948. Their right to this land is an individual right that takes no bearing from their national identity.

Fadi Kiblawi

George Washington University Law School

I have no idea whether there were any people who thought of themselves as Palestinians more than 80 years ago. Whether or not Palestinian identity is of recent origin is irrelevant. National self identity is a comparatively new development in much of the world and is often in response to the intrusion of outside powers — whether by massive peaceful immigration, violent seizure of land or a combination of peaceful and violent means or just economic imperialism.

The Arabs have lived in Palestine for more than a thousand years. How strong was our sense of identity as an “American people” 80 years prior to the Declaration of Independence?

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a tragedy. Everybody on each side has a rightful claim that, pushed to the limits, will ensure permanent violence. As the occupying power, Israel bears a particular responsibility if it wants to assure the world that its goal is peace. Year in and year out, suicide bombings or no suicide bombings, Israeli settlements on occupied land have expanded. Any Israeli government is either going to have to sell us on why 230,000 or more settlers are essential to Israel’s security or admit that most of them are not and start to remove them permanently.

There is no possibility of discussing peace when the Israeli government seizes Palestinian land to build its barrier deep into the West Bank to protect Jewish settlers.

Chuck Litweiler

litweil@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu

I do not wear a towel on my head or speak a funny incoherent language.

My skin is not brown, and I do not protest atrocities against insignificant countries … mostly sand anyway.

But I do support my flawless country, shrouded in my massive American flag … the bigger it is the more patriotism I have.

I supported my country when we defeated Spain to free Cuba, only to take their freedom for our reward.

I supported my country when we dropped two atomic bombs when we already knew the war on Japan was over.

I supported my country when we entered the Cold War with a country that had a fraction of our weaponry.

I supported my country when we invaded Central America to keep dictators in power for “American interests.”

I supported my country when we supplied the weapons for the massacre of thousands of indigenous East Timorese.

I supported my country when it supervised the torturing and beating of 70,000 people in South Vietnam during the “just” Vietnam War.

I supported my country when we killed 4,000 Iraqi insurgents and managed to only kill 13,000 women and children with our “precision weaponry.”

I drive confidently with the Red White and Blue sticker on my bumper and window because I know that “Freedom isn’t Free”.

I support my country because they tell me they do what is in my best interest, and quite frankly, it hurts my head to think otherwise.

I am accepting of our mistakes …

I am comfortable in my isolated life …

I am blindly patriotic,

I am an American Terrorist.

Andrew P. Agosto

Senior, civil engineering

apagosto@students.wisc.edu

5 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | September 17, 2004 12:26 PM | Reply

See, Emily, the powerful sometimes struggle to understand where the story is. I think the Badger Herald is doing just fine for itself without any of your input.

Anonymous | September 17, 2004 4:56 PM | Reply

Re: Mac's claim that Palestinians have not been around as long as major league baseball, he is absolutely right. The group of people collectively known today as Palestinians did not refer to themselves as Palestinians until the founding of the PLO in the late 1960s. As for Yasser Arafat himself, he isn't a Palestinian. He's Egyptian.

Anonymous | September 17, 2004 4:57 PM | Reply

There is no possibility of discussing peace in the Middle East as long as Palestinians continue blowing themselves up for the sake of murdering innocent civilians.

Anonymous | September 18, 2004 4:50 PM | Reply

In a place as liberal (and often times senseless) as Madison, it's easy to get a corrupted impression of where the real world public opinion really lies. I recall seeing an ABC poll back in April stating that 60+ percent of Americans think that the US involvement in the situation is at an appropriate level.

God forbid a republic act on the majority concensus of its constituancy.

And Emily, you need to at some point learn to distinquish between columns and actual stories. The folks at the Herald delve those issues quite often; with a broad page student newspaper, they would have to.

I'm sure we'll hear plenty about the ASM bungling in the coming semester.

Anonymous | September 20, 2004 9:23 AM | Reply

Emily makes a good point. The Badger Herald rarely, if ever, talks about the substantive issues that ASM, and other organizations like the United Council is attempting to address and focuses mainly on complaining about seg-fee related "scandals" that they themselves manufacture. Granted, there is some coverage of the meetings, but a majority of the columns, op-eds, and such are pretty much a constant stream of whining about seg-fees.