Put away your “peace in the Middle East” and “peace in Palestine” signs because you are lying. You don’t really believe in peace in the Middle East. You don’t really believe in peace in Palestine. You don’t believe in peace and you don’t really want it. If you did you would have rallied for peace when Islamic Jihad and other groups were blowing themselves up on city buses and targeting Israeli school children. Where were the demands that the terror stop because it damages the prospects for peaceful co-existence? Does terrorism not also impede the peace process? You can call it whatever you want and hide it as righteous indignation, you may mask it as human rights activism, as peace activism, but when you only campaign for peace for Palestinians and not Israelis you are not doing anyone any favors; you’re only prolonging violence. The situation of the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank is not going to get any better until the terrorist threat is gone.
Where are your protests for the release of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit? Do you think that he deserves to live in captivity for two-and-a-half years? Where are the protests when Hamas demands the release of hundreds of prisoners with blood on their hands? Would U.S. citizens be OK with freeing convicted al-Qaida terrorists so that they can again kill Americans? Israel traded a monster, Samir Kuntar, who killed a father in front of his four-year-old daughter and then bashed her skull in, for the remains of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were kidnapped in 2006 right before the second Lebanon war. Of course, there weren’t any rallies. It is when a drop of Arab blood is spilled that peace in the Middle East is upset. Only when Arab blood is spilled do these so-called peace activists fill the streets with signs of swastikas and bloody Stars of David. Zionism is equated to racism but “Death to the Jews” is OK.
Yesterday there was a panel “discussion” on what happened in Israel and the Gaza Strip over winter break. The speakers were the typical voices that are called upon for this type of thing. People like Nada Khader, a Palestinian-American activist who I have heard speak a few times, and who will always offer a one-sided and biased opinion on how terrible it is to be a Palestinian because the Jews are always out to get you. Ali Mazrui, a professor at this University, was also another speaker. I spent a semester in his class, “Islam in World Affairs,” last spring, and although he may be a brilliant scholar when it comes to African issues, his thoughts on the Israeli-Arab conflict are toxic.
This wasn’t a panel discussion, it was a panel agreement. A discussion would have meant a back-and-forth of ideas. This panel had only one idea: Israel is the sole source of the problems today. To say that this was not a constructive way in which to talk about the conflict is an understatement. An event that will treat Israel like a punching bag does not further the cause of peace in the Middle East any more than people who wear keffiyehs (Palestinian scarves) as a fashion item to “show solidarity.” If students on the Binghamton University campus would like to be informed about the conflict going on in the Middle East today, it is only fair that they be given a balanced perspective. It is only through the expression of multiple points of view on this issue that a student will be able to formulate an informed opinion about the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors.