Israel’s War Against Terrorism

To the Editors:

After reading last week’s article by Ariella Cohen regarding Professor Hasso’s talk, and seing the plethora of pro-Palestinian paperwork in Mudd and across campus, I have decided to write in. I cannot say I am happy with the current military action being brought on by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; if I could have my way, former Prime Minster Netanyahu would still be spearheading the Israeli end of the peace process in the Middle East. I feel it is important to remember the motive for which the IDF has initiated this response. For years, since the inception of the peace process, the U.S., UN, and Israel have asked, begged and pleaded Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat to ask the terrorists in his nation to stop their attacks. To this day, he has not once asked his people in Arabic to stop the violence — he has even proclaimed his desire to be a martyr himself. Because of this, Israel has found itself in the position of having to carry out the job that Arafat should have done years ago: the clearing out of the true enemies of the peace process, the terrorist of Hamas, Al-Aqsa and other peace hating organizations. It is hard for me to support Israel when they are making the lives of so many innocent Palestinians difficult, but they do it only as a last resort to try and prevent the further deaths of Israeli citizens (both Arab and Jewish alike). So far, Operation Protective Shield has worked in its goals of stopping immediate terrorist attacks on Israelis (with the sad exception of a bus bomb on 4/9), and will hopefully continue to do so.
I look forward to the day when Israel can pull its military forces out of Palestinian controlled territories without fearing the vicious murders of its own citizens by fringe terrorist groups. However, until the Palestinian Authority is willing to take on the responsibility of policing its own people for terrorists, and truly commit to the peace process by not supporting suicide bombing and other acts of overt terror over the Israeli people, I do not see how Israel can be expected to drop its arms and freely give in to the Palestinian Authority and international pressure.

–Asher Rapkin
College sophomore