Do you support terrorism? Do you encourage the intentional murder of innocent civilians? The Palestinian Authority and a majority of the Palestinian people do. Now, do you support the Palestinians?
Let me tell you a story about a girl named Sarri Singer from New Jersey. She was a good friend of mine here in the United States until she moved to Israel in 2002. When I was in Israel in June 2003, I planned to go visit her at her home in Har Nof, a suburb of Jerusalem. When I called her to set up a time to meet, her answering machine said her mailbox was full. I tried to call her for days; still nobody picked up her phone and her machine was full. Finally, after a week of calling, Sarri answered the phone one day. I asked her where she had been for so long, and her answer stunned me. She told me that she had been a victim of a suicide attack.
While riding home on a bus one evening, a Palestinian terrorist from the group Hamas sat down in the middle of the bus and exploded his bomb-belt, which was filled with nuts and bolts. The bus was destroyed, 17 Israelis were killed and 100 were wounded. My friend was relatively lucky; she only had a piece of shrapnel enter into her shoulder. Had it been a few inches over, it would have struck her neck and killed her.
What did my friend to do to deserve this? She was just trying to live a peaceful life in the land that she dreamed of for so many years. This is the difference between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinian terrorists attack civilians intentionally, hoping to murder as many Jews as possible. On the other hand, when the Israelis perform counter-terror military operations, they go out of their way to avoid killing civilians.
Unfortunately, since the terrorists are hiding within the civilian population, some civilians do get killed. Yet after every such occurrence, the Israeli military investigates fully as to why it happened and how it could have been prevented.
To see the difference in intent of the two sides, one must simply look at the foundations of the two peoples. The Palestinian National Covenant reads, "Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine...The establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void...The Palestinian Arab people rejects every solution that is a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine...Zionism is a racist and fanatical movement in its formation and fascist and Nazi in its means." Even from its beginnings, the Palestinian leaders have only planned for the destruction of the State of Israel.
Compare this with the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, or, "The Hope." A section of it is as follows: "We have not lost our hope/ the hope of 2,000 years/ to be a free nation in our land/ in the land of Zion and Jerusalem." The Israeli founders only wanted our freedom and security among the 22 Arab nations that surround her.
One last point I must make is regarding the brainwashing of Palestinian children. From birth, Palestinian kids are taught to hate Israel and become martyrs for the cause. All Palestinian Authority textbook maps have no Israel, only Palestine. A third grade textbook the calls Israel, "the Zionist enemy." A fifth grade book tells children to "drive out the Jews." The rhetoric and propaganda only gets worse as the children get older. If this wasn't enough, summer camps run by the PA for children as young as eight include weapons training and "political education," which is simply anti-Israel propaganda and skits that depict how the Jews stole Arab land. Nobody should stand for this outrageous behavior. I don't care what side you support in this conflict, but everyone should realize that there is no justification for terrorism and creating children soldiers.
I did not reply to Professor Holstun's claims in the Jan. 23 issue of "The Spectrum" for two reasons. Firstly, many of them were so outrageous and absurd that I won't give them credibility by commenting on them, especially the comparisons of Jews to Nazis and the Palestinian areas to concentration camps. These unthinkable comparisons do nothing but fan the flames of hatred and persecution. Almost an entire side of my family was slaughtered during the Holocaust, with only my grandfather and great-grandfather surviving. Do not try to tell me that my family in Israel now is the same as the Nazis who murdered my family in Europe.
Secondly, I thought this was a student newspaper, a forum for students to express their opinions and beliefs, not a place for professors to spread their messages of bias and persecution.
Finally, I ask all of you to research the conflict yourself. Don't be swayed by one or two articles you may have read. I know that if you look at the facts of history, you will find out which side to support. The good news is that Jews have a homeland again; a place that is their own. And if it comes down to survival of its nation and its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with ferocity, determination and a skill that will astound us all. Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country and is totally justified in doing so.
[Editor's Note: The Spectrum publishes responses from anyone - students, non-students, professors, faculty and staff - on our content or relevant campus issues. We reserve the right to edit for length, style and grammar.]
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
