Congratulations on turning 56 years old. Many would not have thought that you’d make it through such a difficult time, but you did. You’ve been made fun of, beat up, and teased. I applaud you on making it and I’m proud of you, but you should be proud of yourself too, you’re now well educated and successful.
The United Nations in 1948 granted you independence, and since then after 2000 years of exile, Jews from all over the world have been able to return to you. They were able to escape persecution, death, discrimination, and racism all over the world by coming to you. Perhaps that’s why over a hundred UMassians converged on the lawn outside the campus center this past Tuesday to celebrate your birthday.
With the largest number of hi-tech start-ups per capita in the world and having attracted venture capital at rates exceeding most European countries, you have proportionately the highest number of university graduates in the world according to jpost.com.
You’ve gone to great lengths to help save human lives. I think perhaps too much at times. Last year you sent many of your own soldiers to go house by house to root out Palestinian terrorists in the city of Jenin, who were responsible for blowing up buses full of Israeli civilians. In that process dozens of young Israeli soldiers and several dozen Palestinian terrorists were killed according to CNN.com. You could have easily bombed the area with your air force, killed the necessary people and not lost one single Israeli life, but you didn’t because you were afraid that Palestinian civilians might get hurt.
You’ve had to deal with Palestinian teenagers and children who have strapped on explosives and rusty nails in an effort to kill civilians. You’ve had to deal with Palestinian mothers who have blown themselves up in your buses and malls. You’ve had to deal with Palestinian terrorists who had no problem attacking you with rockets from schools and other densely populated areas where it would be hard for you to return fire. You’ve had quite a challenge fighting a side that does not value human life, especially innocent human life.
Your poorest segment of society, the most helpless, has been targeted time and time again. Those that can not afford any car and have to rely on public transportation to get to work or school are the ones who get blown up. They have no other way of arriving to work, they have to either starve or risk getting torn apart to shreds.
But hopefully soon we can celebrate the birthday of a Palestinian state too. Hopefully in the nearby future there will be a Palestinian state side by side with Israel. But for that to happen, Israel needs to have a partner to negotiate with. Not a partner who sees murdering college students as they eat in their cafeteria as a negotiating tool. Not a partner that supports terrorist groups such as Hamas who see blowing pregnant women to bits as legitimate. But a real partner, one that is willing to recognize Israel’s right to exist and the right of Israelis to live. You need two for peace.
Right now Israel has no partner for peace; Israel has a dictator to negotiate with, who is known for supporting terrorists, is corrupt, and is known for notoriously lying. Yasser Arafat currently has been hoarding over a billion in aid money in his coffers according to a recent “60 Minutes” report.
I want to celebrate the independence of a Palestinian state next year; I want to celebrate a state that does not see murder as acceptable. The logic that it is justified to murder the innocent, who have done nothing, is the kind you hear from a patient in the criminally insane unit of a mental hospital.
In the 1967 Khartoum Resolutions, the Arab states established that there shall be absolutely no negotiations at all with Israel. In 2000 Arafat walked out of peace negotiations with Israel and refused to continue them. Instead he called for jihad, martyrs and bloodshed according to honestreporting.com. One doesn’t have to be a poly-science major to understand that the leader of the Palestinians clearly in not interested in a Palestinian state or any sort of democracy. Just since 1990 Israel has had six different prime ministers; since the 1960’s the Palestinians have had just Arafat.
I’m more pro-Palestinian than the Palestinian’s own leader, Arafat. I want there to be a Palestinian state, but Arafat has shown through his actions that the only kind of state that he’s interested in is a constant state of terror.
What is Israel to do if it has no one to negotiate with? Hopefully next year when I wish Israel a happy fifty-seventh birthday, I’ll be able to wish a happy birthday to a Palestinian state too.
Gilad Skolnick is a Collegian columnist.
