In Response to Parables of Palestine
The opinion column that ran in the April 24th Statesman entitled, “The Parables of Palestine” was unfairly biased. Wether the author was uneducated as to the conflict or thought that we as readers were, He was mistaken. Wether intended or not, to say that suicide bombers have a legitamate right equal to a legitimate police force is unmoral. To conveniently leave out the fact that the Middle Esatern arms race was not only not one-sided but skewed in favor of the Arab Nations to begin with is irresponsible. The U.S. policy in the region for the bulk of the conflict favored a balance of power so that conflict would be discouraged. It was the Palestinians and their supporters that through Soviet intervention sought to tip the scales and throw off that balance. To compare the I.D.F. to the Gestapo is about as sick as can be. How can one (even a palestinian) so quickly forget the Pogroms and Nazi (Gestapo) influence that brought them to that neck of the woods in the first place? To compare the Camp David Accords using the Temple Square analogy would be okay if it were similar. If the Israelis were occupying Saudi Arabia then the analogy would hold. Let us not forget that the Israelis entered Palestine quite peacefully, and to use a more appropriate analogy, were persecuted and driven by those who resented their growing influence in the region much as the early Mormon Pioneers. This we must remember was the beginning of the conflict. Everything since has to be related back and understood in the light of one peoples struggle to survive in a world without a home. Were it not for those who initially denied them that basic human right the conflict would not exist in it’s current form. I do agree that the Palestinians should be fairly treated and compensated for loses not directly tied to their own hostile actions. But however feel that they also have lost any right to the land they claim as a result of their own arrogant hostilities. Would you give the Golan Heights back so your farmers could again be shelled from it’s lofty splendor? Neither would I. Heck I would’nt have given back the Sinai either. In short, their are no sidelines in this conflict and for those that seek to understand it, they cannot find their answers in some biased analogy. I encourage you to spend the little time neccesary to study and form your own opinion.