It no longer matters who deserves the land. The killing needs to stop. And it needs to stop on both sides. Israel needs to get out of the West Bank and Gaza strip. They cannot bulldoze the entire Palestinian race. Genocide will not work.
The Palestinians refuse to be ruled by a government they do not recognize. Father after father of the young suicide bombers pronounces their pride in what their sons or daughters did. And they gladly collect the $25,000 check from Saddam. They will not stop until Israel gets out of their state. The state exists, but making it official is the only way to stop the violence.
With the checkpoints and midnight raids, these people are being humiliated and feel they have no reason to live. And if they can die with the admiration of their people, it is even more attractive as they will be immortalized as martyrs among their people.
With the Oslo accords both Israel and Arafat’s PLO received recognition, and it is obvious nothing but an end to the occupation will stop the terror. It is time to also recognize a Palestinian state.
However, it is obvious that Sharon is not willing to negotiate. He wants Arafat dead – understandably. Wednesday he called Secretary of State Colin Powell’s plan to meet with Arafat a”tragic mistake.” At least Arafat is willing to talk.
However, I don’t give him that much credit. Holed up in Ramallah, Arafat called international leaders asking them to stop Sharon from killing him, and that was it. At Camp David, Arafat could have had a Palestinian state; however, he rejected it. He likely is a terrorist, only concerned with the destruction of Israel and not the freedom of his people. He sits on top of his stacks of money and tells the other Palestinians their situation sucks, so they should lash out against Israel.
On the Fox News Network Wednesday night, former Vice President Dan Quayle said that five years ago the ratio of dead Palestinians to dead Israelis was 25 to 1. Now, according to the New York Times’ tally of casualties in the region since September 2000, the ratio is about 4 dead Palestinians to every one dead Israeli. Arafat has been able to narrow the margin. This means he thinks he is winning. There needs to be a new leader for Palestine, and not one of Arafat’s cronies.
Sharon may be right when he calls Arafat the “head of a regime of terror.” However, he needs to open up to negotiation if he wants to end the killing. When he elaborated on Powell’s “tragic mistake,” he said, “While the U.S. has problems in the area, we have funerals.”
And this is true, but Israel is using U.S. weapons to destroy innocent Palestinian homes as well. The suicide bombers are but a fraction of all the Palestinian people. There is no reason to punish the entire group of people for the mistakes of a few.
For many Americans it is easier to relate to the tribulations of the Israeli people. They see Israel as an infallible democracy comparable to the United States battling against terrorism. Yet just as the United States is missing the point in its war, Israel follows suit.
The true root of terrorism is a downtrodden person who can see who it is that does the trodding. That person then realizes this high and mighty nation is weaker than it realizes and attacks the Achilles heel. Now I know collateral damage is a part of war, but goddammitt, it is one of the most easily preventable causes of terrorism. And terrorism is defined as attacks on innocent civilians. But if the Palestinians were only suicide-bombing Israeli soldiers, I hardly think any one would give them any more justification in what they were doing.
Samuel Bakken ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.