Despite all the bloodshed, the world must hold strong to the idea of non-violence because everyone would suffer from the outbreak of war.
By Karma Salvato
Staff Writer
As we innocently go about our days, scurrying from one place to the next, oblivious to daily events, our world is being propelled on a downward spiral straight into the hands of hell.
The holy lands are a war zone, apocalypse is upon us, and we can barely make sense of it all. But, does that mean we should give up on the idea that someday peace could exist? Let’s hope not. No matter how bleak the fate of our future looks, we can’t lose faith.
The intense hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have been brewing for years have once again erupted into an all-out war. Suicide bombings have been taking place day after day in Israel, and though Israelis have attempted to extend a hand of peace, their efforts have been continuously thwarted.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat “have fought for each other’s mutual destruction for years,” as a recent article in the Los Angeles Times put it. And while Sharon and Arafat continue to engage in a childish grudge match, more and more innocent lives are lost. This brutality toward one another must come to an end.
Sharon’s speech to the citizens of Israel, translated into English by the Associated Press, stated: “Everyone who seeks freedom, everyone who was brought up on the values of freedom and democracy must know that Arafat is an obstacle to peace in the Mideast.”
Maybe he is. But the blame cannot fall at the feet of only one individual. All parties involved must take responsibility for their actions and stop the cycle before it keeps repeating itself. And, while the war may be between Israel and Palestine, we are all guilty.
We are guilty of standing by and not taking action. Since the two opposing parties can’t seem to come to an agreement, it is time for the world community to take over and settle the matter. Watching an inhumane act take place and doing nothing about it is just as bad as actually taking part in it.
Something dramatic needs to be done before any more people have to die. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that perhaps “the United States should offer a comprehensive peace plan that embraces all Arab countries.” Perhaps we should. Maybe then a door would be opened and a resolution could occur.
Peace can still be a possibility, but it needs to be presented in a way that will appease all parties involved. Peace needs to be the only option, because otherwise the ramifications will be irreversible. In a discussion about the issue on CNN, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, secretary of state during the administration of President Bush’s father, said: “the long-term danger is that the violence will spill over and have a ‘chilling effect’ on the U.S. ability to pursue the broader war on terrorism.”
Even in the midst of this horrific time, some individuals struggle to hold onto the idea that in the end, peace will prevail. Ali Adawi, an Israeli Arab whose restaurant was the latest target for a terrorist attack, managed to offer a positive thought. “I am looking forward to the day when Jews and Arabs will live next to each other in peace and love,” Adawi said later from a hospital bed as two of his Jewish friends stood by his side. “That is what I want.”
And why can’t it happen? Miracles happen every day. What is to stop one from occurring in this war-ravaged land? God created the whole universe, so why should we doubt that he could bring peace?
Israel may be under attack and unsure of their fate, but God promised peace and in his time, peace will occur. “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. All your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be your children’s peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you.” (Isaiah 54:11-15)
More than ever this is a time to link arms with our Creator, and with each other, and pray more fervently than we have ever prayed before. We need to hold onto the idea that someday we will be a peaceful people and never let go of that thought no matter how grim the days ahead look. Without hope, what do we have left?
Roundtable talks and land offers can’t remove the history of hatred these cultures have for each other. War is only solution.
By Kyle Jorrey
Opinions Editor
What might be the scariest and most appalling fact about last Wednesday’s suicide bombing that killed 19 Israelis and injured 100 on the eve of Passover is it wasn’t that big of a surprise.
Just nights before the massacre, news sources warned that the beginning of Passover, one of Judaism’s holiest of holidays, might bring about a terrorist attack. And they were right.
The sad reality of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that violence is inevitable and unavoidable. This past week a car bomb in central Jerusalem marked seven terrorist bombings in six days. Violence is going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.
For this reason there is really only one solution to the 50-year conflict, and it is one that world leaders and politicians are just too afraid to admit. The solution is all-out warfare, one side against the other, winner take all. That is the only answer.
By saying this, I understand people might believe me to be a cruel, heartless person who supports warfare and in doing so supports the killing of thousands of people. Nothing could be further from the truth. The issue here isn’t about being for or against war, it’s about the reality of the situation in the Middle East.
The seeds of hatred between these two cultures were planted long ago, and the rest of the world only helped them to grow. It started with Britain, which in 1917 in the Balfour Declaration found it in its power to establish a Jewish homeland on top of the land owned for generations by Palestinians, without even asking the Palestinian people what they think about it.
In a matter of years, thousands of Jews flooded into Israel, displacing Palestinians and causing a wound still open today. The Palestinians, exiled from their homeland, became refugees in their own land and were forced to migrate to the surrounding nations of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. But these countries didn’t want them either.
So there they sat, a group of people without a home and without an opportunity to grow economically. They suffered and starved, all the while knowing that just across the border Israel and its people were flourishing with the aid of the United States.
The point here is not to place blame, but to paint a picture of just how deeply rooted the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is and why there is no compromise in this battle. To the naïve news-watching Americans who whine, “Can’t they just stop killing each other?” while enjoying their morning coffee and watching CNN, the reply is simple. No.
Last week when Saudi’s Prince Abdullah presented a peace plan to offer normal relations between Israel and other Arab states in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories, it sounded like huge progress. But in reality, it wasn’t anything new. Land-for-peace offers have failed before, not because Israel needs the barren desert and swamp land that make up the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights for economic reasons, but because of security. If someone had been throwing rocks through your windows for the past 50 years, would you let them move in your backyard so they could get a closer shot? I don’t think so.
And the Palestinians aren’t about to give in either, because in this battle they’ve got nothing to lose. Scary but true, many Palestinian men have found the only hope to provide their families a good life is to blow themselves up in an Israeli café. By doing so, they are proclaimed martyrs and their families are then taken care of by Arab supporters.
The battle now extends to the children of these nations, as kids younger and younger learn to hate their Jewish or Arab counterparts. I remember asking a classmate in seventh grade, a Palestinian, why he was celebrating the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “Because I hate the Jews,” he replied. “Have you ever met one?” I asked. He shook his head no. And this is just why there isn’t a peaceful end to this problem.
It’s time for the rest of the world to focus its attention on the fight against terrorism and let Israeli and Palestinian armies decide for themselves when this battle will end. History tells us that no war can go on forever — eventually there is always a victor.
No one wants this to happen, but the Israelis don’t want to continue worrying each day they leave their house that they will be blown up by a man carrying a suitcase full of explosives. Full-fledged combat is the only real answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
April 04, 2002