On Saturday, a Palestinian homicide bomber blew herself up in the middle of a crowded restaurant in Haifa, Israel. When the dust settled, 55 were wounded and 19 were dead, including four Israeli Arabs and four children. Saturday was, as many might know, the day before the start of the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur.
As can be expected, the U.N. Security Council gathered the following day to propose a resolution condemning the "brutal and unjustifiable attack" committed by ... Israel?
Yes, because Israel, ever the villain, had responded to this terrorist attack by immediately launching air strikes against a suspected terrorist training camp in neighboring Syria.
The air strike resulted in substantial material damage but no casualties, and was aimed at striking at Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group that has claimed responsibility for the Haifa bombing. This leads one to wonder exactly how Syria's U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad could label Israel's retaliation as either "brutal" or "unjustifiable."
This is only another repetition of the sad pattern in the Israel/Palestine conflict: First, terrorists kill as many Israelis as possible; then, Israel responds by sending its military to attack terrorist targets; and finally, everyone glares at Israel for ruining the peace process.
Well, there is not much of a peace process to speak of right now. There is, however, the continued 50-year struggle of Israel to maintain its existence in the face of overwhelming hatred from nearly all of its neighbors. In the last three years, the failed peace process has yielded over 870 Israeli deaths in such attacks, and 2400 Palestinians.
There will be no peace process as long as Yasser Arafat remains in any kind of power. Arafat is the known founder of al-Fatah, an underground terrorist organization; he has led the PLO, another terrorist organization; he is currently the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which has a history of indoctrinating Palestinian citizens with a powerful hatred of Israel.
There will be no peace process as long as moral equivalency abides - here and everywhere. Last week a young man spoke (politely and kindly enough, I must say) to some of us at the College Republican table around lunchtime. He pointed to the mini-sized Israel flag that our table displayed proudly and asked, "If you were an Arab Muslim, would you want to live under this flag?", implying that he felt that religious differences underline the conflict.
As an American Christian, my differences with Judaism are very strong indeed, but I would stand proudly under the Star of David. How are the Jews to blame for someone else's intolerance?
There is only one "peace process" being carried out right now: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel is willing to "hit its enemies any place, any way."
If bloodthirsty thugs are ever at your doorstep, the one choice you have is to fight back, or die. The only peace Sharon is "ruining" is the peace that lets Islamic extremists trample his nation into the dirt - and for that, Israel deserves anything but condemnation.
Eric Spratling is a journalism senior. Reach him at eric.spratling@asu.edu.
