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Middle East problems require understanding
BACKGROUND
■ 1948: Israel offi
cially becomes an in
dependent stafe.
Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq and
Jordan immediately
declare war on Israel.
During the war, most
of the Palestinian ter
ritory comes under
Israeli control.
■11967: Israel
launches a preemp
tive strike on the
neighboring Arab
nations. Israel gains
complete control of
Jerusalem and He
bron.
■ 1982: Israeli
forces mount a large
invasion of Lebanon
in retaliation for at
tacks by the PLO.
■ 1987: Palestini
ans in the West Bank
and Gaza rise up in
protest of Israeli rule.
Clashes between Is
raeli soldiers and
Palestinians lead to
casualties on both
sides in the riots
known as the Intifa
da.
■ 1993: Israel and
the Palestinian Liber
ation Organization
(PLO) sign a historic
peace agreement.
This paves the way
toward the eventual
self-rule of the Pales
tinians in the occu
pied territories.
■ 1995: Israeli
Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin is as
sassinated by Yigal
Amir, an Israeli an
gered by the peace
process.
■ OUR OPINION:
Solving the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is harder than it appears
of land no bigger than the state of
New Jersey? The Israeli-Palestinean
conflict for one thing. Once again, af
ter it looked like peace was close only
a few years ago, these two enemies
seem to be heading toward another
violent eruption. With mistrust and
frustration growing on both sides,
many people in the United States and
the rest of the world are wondering
why peace in the Middle East has be
come such an elusive goal. After all,
many Americans reason, if we can
get along with our neighbors, why
can’t they?
The current conflict in Israel re
volves around the city of Hebron — a
city of biblical importance both for
religious Jews and Muslims. The
Palestinians controlled Hebron up
until the Six Day War in 1968, at
which point the Palestinians lost the
city to Israeli forces. Under former
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israel
agreed to give Hebron back over to
Palestinian control in an effort to es
tablish peace with the Palestinians.
However, after Rabin was assassi
nated, conservative Benjamin Ne
tanyahu became prime minister and
negotiations with Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat came to an almost
screeching halt. Netanyahu has en
gaged in a far more cautious ap
proach to dealing with the Palestini
ans and has delayed the Israeli
pull-out from Hebron. This has led to
rising tensions on both sides, most re
cently from a retired Israeli soldier
shooting at a crowd of Palestinians in
Hebron. In response, violent Pales
tinian organizations have threatened
violent attacks on Israel, putting yet
another snag in the peace process.
Around the world, and in the Unit
ed States especially, it is easy to pass
hat happens when half
a century of fighting
and bad blood are
squeezed into a space
WHY NOT?
America's perception.
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald ■
The reality.
judgment on both the Israelis and the
Palestinians. Why can’t they just sign
on the dotted line and get on with the
peace process already? The U.S. gov
ernment has continued to push for a
quick solution to the Hebron situa
tion. What people don’t seem to un
derstand is how complicated the en
tire Israeli-Palestinean conflict really
is and how impractical a “quick fix”
solution would be.
If the U.S. government vows peace
with Canada, we can assume there
will be peace with Canada. The
chances of some militia group orga
nizing an attack on Canadian soil
without the government being able to
stop them are pretty slim, because in
the United States, the government is
in complete control of its foreign pol
icy. The same can not be said for
many nations in the Middle East.
Take the Palestinians for example.
Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian
Liberation Organization (PLO) are
the recognized leaders of the Pales
tinian people. Under the PLO leader
ship, the Palestinians have promised
peace with Israel if the country hon
ors the agreements it made under Ra
bin’s government. Unfortunately, un
der the PLO is an equally powerful
organization — the terrorist group
Hamas — which has made it clear
that as long as the state of Israel exists
they will rain violence on the people.
So even if Arafat is serious in his in
tentions for peace, there is no guaran
tee it will happen.
On the other side of the coin, re
cent events clearly show the Israeli
government is not in complete con
trol of its people, either. While the Is
raeli government works for peace, ul
tra-religious sects have claimed a
higher responsibility toward God in
violating Israeli foreign policy with
attacks on Palestinians. This forces
each government to be very hesitant
about giving up strategic pieces of
land that could sacrifice the security
of its people.
While it is admirable to want to see
Israelis and Palestinians finally
achieve peace, people have to under
stand that peace isn’t as easy as it may
sound. In the United States, we have 1
become spoiled with security. We
just expect that our government will
be able to protect us from any foreign
threat. After all, the last war fought
on our own soil was the Civil War,
over 100 years ago. It’s easy for us to
ask the Israelis and the Palestinians
to take a chance and trust each other.
What do we have to lose? We know
we’ll be safe no matter what happens.
For the people in the Middle East, it’s
a little bit harder. Rushing into an
agreement without first making sure
the people of each nation will honor
it could be a catastrophic mistake
leading to the loss of more innocent fives.
Instead of placing unrealistic ex
pectations on the Palestinians and
the Israelis, we should be patient
with the peace process and under
stand how complicated it really is.
Only when we understand how diffi
cult peace will be can we truly work
towards achieving it.
This editorial represents the opinion
of the Emerald editorial board.
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CORRECTION
In the Jan. 9
edition of the
Emerald, an ar
ticle stated that
the Student
Senate’s en
dorsements of
two resolutions
will now go to
the University
Senate. The
sentence
should have
specified that
the Student
Senate en
dorsed the rec
ommendations,
which may or
may not go to
the University
Senate.