The fact that not one mention was made in Monday’s Badger Herald of the 21 Israelis who were murdered by Palestinians over the weekend serves as evidence of the unconditional bias towards the Palestinians this paper continually exhibits. Time and time again, the Herald reserves prime front-page real estate for the horrific tragedies the Palestinians face in this year and a half-old conflict. These attacks over the weekend, including direct targeting of civilians and many children, have devastated Israeli society as they cope with yet another barbaric act of terrorism.

For those unfamiliar with the conflict, this style of reporting would be akin to full coverage of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan while making little or no mention of 9/11. Additionally, many on the left on this campus sympathize with Palestinian plight, as any decent human being should. However, as with 9/11, directly supporting the methodology and the essence of the Palestinian movement simply because of their underdog status would be a mistake. As 9/11 shows, the underdog is not always just in their desires or their methods.

This conflict has been devastating, in human terms as well as in economic and social conditions for both sides. Many will point to the underlying situation in which Palestinians are a people under occupation. However, this occupation was forced upon Israel. On two separate occasions, the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 and almost two years ago at Camp David, the Palestinians were given a settlement considered fair by the vast majority of non-Arab peoples worldwide. On the first occasion, the Palestinians incorrectly calculated that they could drive the Jews into the sea, and on the second, they refused to settle over a “right return” for those displaced following the first Palestinian mistake. With their explosive birthrates, the Palestinian returnees would overwhelm the Israeli population within 50 years and obliterate the Jewish democratic state from within, something Israel could never accept. Furthermore, for 20 years following Israel’s founding, the Palestinian territories were under Jordanian occupation, which did nothing to grant the Palestinians a state.

Finally, this bias by the Herald is not only unprofessional, it is also dangerous. This campus’ history has unfortunately not been free from anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry. This brutish portrayal of the Jewish state in a medium that serves as the primary source of information for many on this campus, undoubtedly increases, if not outright, then latent anti-Semitism.

Michael Roomberg

UW senior