I know what you're thinking, "Is this really the third straight day the Herald is publishing an editorial piece on Israel?" Well, yes. But it is also the first day an article is being published not just about Israel, but from Israel. Let me explain.

This past summer, I and 17 other students of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fled from the West Bank city of Ramullah May 25, among a cloud of thick, black smoke and alarming gunfire that left four Palestinians dead and 50 wounded, just blocks from where I had been enjoying a falafel sandwich only minutes earlier. The Israeli Defense Forces-initiated raid, aimed at capturing an Islamic Jihad militant from his home, was met with resistance that lead to the deaths and injuries of many surrounding civilians. After leaving the city boundaries, and taking a collective sigh of relief with my group, it hit me: To the people living here, this conflict is everything.

That night at a restaurant in Jerusalem, we learned that our waitress' best friend had been killed in the same raid earlier that day. Yet only hours after his death she came into work for the purpose of making money for her family. She spent the entire night fighting tears and the unimaginable flood of emotions that must come with the loss of a life-long friend under such brutal conditions.

Every day for three weeks I heard story after story of pain, suffering and death, from desperate Palestinians still confined to refugee camps to Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and anyone else you could imagine in between. From these stories I soon began to realize how little I truly knew about the lives of the people immersed in the reality of this brutal conflict — a reality I certainly could not have learned from any of the readings, books or articles I had studied in the many months leading up to the trip.

So when I opened my trusty Badger Herald Tuesday morning and read fellow editorial columnist Will Smith's article titled "Peace attempts in Israel destined for failure, Hamas to blame," I knew that he too was far removed from the reality of this conflict.

Mr. Smith hinted at the popular notion that it is only Israel, and not the Palestinians, who want peace with their neighbors. Wait a minute; there was no hinting whatsoever, Mr. Smith came out and directly said "if there is to be peace, it must be made by Israel; the Palestinians have never fully attempted to settle this conflict … " This quote came right before he dubbed Palestinians as the most "disingenuous" negotiators since the Nazis made peace with the Soviets.

I feel it is my duty to assert a few statistics that will hopefully clarify the situation and make those in same school of thought as Mr. Smith use more caution in applying the label of "disingenuous."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has insisted on the release of the one captured IDF soldier in Palestinian hands as a prerequisite for peace talks. However, there are currently almost 9,000 Palestinians being held in Israel, most of them in facilities of the Israel Prison Service, and nearly 20 of them are minors. Can you see how this prerequisite might seem a bit disingenuous to the Palestinian people? Or, can you see how praising the "restraint" of the Israeli Defense Force for not retaliating to rockets that had zero consequence to Israeli life — while more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone in the past four months — might seem like a bit of a disingenuous exaltation?

Or, might it be a bit disingenuous to demand that Hamas, which has not sponsored a single act of terror since its election into power one year ago, be demanded to recognize Israel at the exact same time as the Israeli government builds a separation wall that will seize nearly 12 percent of the land over which Hamas is supposed to govern?

You see, it becomes quite easy for the Israeli PM to offer the Palestinians a "major package of concessions," as put by Mr. Smith, when your government has already taken so much from them. And I assure you that my intent in relaying these facts is not to engender any pro-Palestinian sentiments, but rather to move us one step closer to discarding the incognizant notion that Palestinians do not value life or are not as desperate for peace as their Israeli brothers.

While writers like Mr. Smith may only exhibit opinions accumulated from reading Middle Eastern textbooks and the Sunday newspaper, readers must understand a different reality. You must try and grasp how incredibly deep, how constantly terrifying and how vividly consequential this conflict is for the people who live it each and every day. Then, putting tit-for-tat aside, you must rejoice in a cease-fire, no matter how temporary you may feel it will be, and no matter how much you may wish Israel would retreat to the '67 borders, or dissipate as a state altogether. No matter how much you wish the Palestinians would retreat from terrorist tactics, or recognize Israel's right to exist, the ceasefire has to bring hope, not dissent, from you and the international community as a whole. Because tonight, with the ceasefire in effect, somewhere in Israel or the Occupied Territories, there is a waitress who will leave work, go home and embrace her best friend.

Andy Granias ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science and international studies.