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Peace in the Middle East looking doubtful ■Some University professors give their views on the situation in the Middle East By Andrew Adams Oregon Daily Emerald University experts were quick to describe their shock at the recent escalation of violence between Is raelis and Palestinians and the sus pected terrorist attack on a U.S. warship off the coast of Yemen. “I really pray this doesn’t esca late anymore,” said Anita Weiss, an international studies professor who has researched Muslim soci eties. Weiss also said she was con cerned about the timing of the air and tank attacks by Israel in re sponse to the deaths of three sol diers at the hands of a Palestinian mob. These actions arise only a month from the Islamic holy peri od of Ramadan. “Between now and then, [Islam ic states] are going to say if we’re going to do anything we have to do it now,” she said. She said the holy time is usually spent in fasting and prayer, but if the Islamic nations of the region become incensed, it could also be a time of war. “There’s nothing to preclude fighting during [Ramadan] if you’re fighting for a worthy cause,” she said, “especially for the preservation of the communi ty.” Weiss said she had heard from several Islamic groups in the Unit ed States denouncing the apparent terrorist attack on the USS Cole. She explained they believe it will only aggravate the violence in the Middle East and could spark retal iatory violence on Islamic-Ameri cans. David Frank, the associate dean of the Honors College who teaches a class studying the rhetoric of Middle Eastern issues, said the sit uation was “very bad right now and it could get quite worse.” He said the violence just demon strates that the tentative peace ac cord reached in 1993 was based purely on pragmatic reasons and { (/ just lament and weep for the failure of the first generation of peacemakers. David Frank associate dean, Honors Col lege did not address the deep cultural and economic divide between Is raelis and Palestinians. He said the two sides only entered into the agreement because they thought it was to their advantage to simply stop fighting. True seeds of peace were never planted, he said, and now Israelis and Palestinians are reaping a harvest of violence. “I just lament and weep for the failure of the first generation of peacemakers,” he said. If the situation gets worse than it is now, Frank said a major war in volving Israel and its Islamic neighbors, similar to those in 1967 and 1973, could break out. This would be the worst-case scenario, he said, and is something he does not envision happening because Israel still holds the mili tary advantage in the region. He added that the United States should not tip this balance by bringing in its own military prowess in response to the sus pected terrorist attack on the USS Cole. “History has demonstrated that retaliation doesn’t go to the core of the problem, but only perpetuates a cycle of violence,” Frank said. “It’s so bad now, we need to wait it out and see what happens.” Geography professor Shaul Co hen lived and worked in Israel for 11 years and witnessed the anger and frustration firsthand. To see it explode like it has now greatly up set him, he said. “I feel tremendous empathy for both sides and I feel the pain on both sides,” he said. “My experi ence there has taught me just how acute that pain can be.” Cohen said he is currently trying to develop a system to enable Is raelis and Palestinians to physical ly share the disputed areas. He said the plan would be similar to how diverse groups share water rights in desert regions. However, this would require a new atmos phere for peace, which Cohen said may be even more difficult to at tain now. “I think it’s quite possible that things are going to get worse,” he said. Sweatshops continued from page 1A tions,” she said. “The way activists were treating the issue on campus was ridiculous; they act like it’s a much bigger deal than it really is. Many people from my country don’t hate sweatshops ... and they don’t feel exploited.” Tolani added that, despite the conditions, many workers aren’t anxious to make changes in their workplaces. “I can guarantee that if some body goes to those factories and says ‘Don’t work here, we’ll find you something better,’ workers will say ‘We don’t care, we want to work here,”’ said Tolani. “Sweat shops give these people the securi ty that they won’t die of hunger. They don’t want to leave.” Tolani, Serrano and Khan said harsh conditions in some factories don’t represent sweatshops as a whole, and generalizations shouldn’t be made. “My mom works with a lot of women who work in sweatshops,” said Serrano, a sophomore busi ness major from El Salvador. “Some of them like their jobs, but i ( Out of all those people who protested in front of Johnson Hall, how many have been to a third-world country? Rakesh Tolani Junior, business then others think the treatment is too rigid. Working in a sweatshop isn’t the best job, but it’s not the worst either ... You can’t say all sweatshops are good, but you can’t say they’re all bad.” Serrano said that although the WRC may improve some working conditions, its efforts could also have a negative impact. “WRC intentions are good,” she said. “But it could have a double effect. For example, the WRC is thinking about closing down some sweatshops in El Salvador, and that would bring many economic problems and make the country’s poverty even worse.” Tolani, Serrano and Khan advo cate some of the activists’ causes, but they said some have made the mistake of applying high Ameri can standards to third-world coun tries without actually going there, and this makes sweatshops appear worse than they are. They said ac tivists should have real-life expo sure to third-world countries be fore fighting for the people living in them. “Out of all those people who protested in front of Johnson Hall, how many have been to a third world country?” said Tolani. “They should go to these countries to see people’s situations firsthand; then if they still want to fight for it, I’m behind them all the way.” Virtual Office Systems Inc. In Partnership with The Universitj/ot Oregon Bookstore 3131 West 11th Ph. 343-8633 Open Mon-Sat 10-6 AMOK? 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Inc Spec* subject to change Go Ducks' Research continued from page 1B research included freezing the worms and examining their fitness rates, does not like the fact that to day’s medical technology can alter nature. The problem, she said, is that people with affected genes who would not normally be able to reproduce are having children and passing down harmful genetic ma terial. Because of these medical con cerns, another goal of Lynch’s team is to examine how different popu lations are affected when natural selection is relaxed. Further study would look at whether the same rate of mutation would occur in other species. This research could take several years, but Estes thinks the time is worth the effort. “It’s exciting to be doing some thing that will have relevance to conservation biology, and to be learning firsthand how evolution works,” she said. The research is ongoing. The next phase of examining genetic mutations is focused on the varia tion and mutation rates among ani mal species. Baer said he is excited to be participating in this new phase of research, which only be gan three weeks ago. “We hope to find out whether mutation rates are specific to indi vidual properties or if there’s varia tion,” Baer said. The new experiments are con ducted similarly to the previous ex periments, but three different species of worms are being used. Results are expected from this re search in two years. stuff in the ODE Classifieds (Off The Mark, your daily horoscope and of course the crossword.) Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the Univer sity of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. 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