OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
'Apartheid'incorrect label for Israeli conflict
After reading Josh Anderson's opinion piece (April 11) about the Arab/Iraeli conflict that misconstrued facts, offered little to no evidence and was decidedly one sided, I felt the need to reply.
The policy of apartheid (legalized racial segregation) that occurred in South Africa was a disenfranchisement of its citizens by the minority white government.
Israel, however, is a sovereign nation that occupies the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Neither is a country and is not part of Israel. Non-citizens who live there are not given the same rights as citizens. Israel's policy of checkpoints and its construction of a security barrier are designed to defend its citizens from violence.
This policy was a racist policy which differentiated between white and black.
The policy of apartheid was not meant for security. The issues underlying the creation a Palestinian state are very complex. One obvious issue is the terrorist groups, recognized as such by both the United States and Europe, that have considerable influence within the occupied territories. Terrorism should not be confused with nationalistic resistance.
Hamas is not dedicated to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace alongside the State of Israel; rather, its charter calls for the destruction and elimination of Israel. Negotiating with Hamas would be like negotiating with Al Qaeda, a group committed to the establishment of a universal caliphate.
Israel is a democracy that represents the myriad views of its citizens. Some are liberal, cosmopolitan and secular. Others are conservative and religious. Some are nationalistic and some Zionistic. Some are Arab. But all have a voice within the Knesset.
The same cannot be said for the autocratic Arab regimes that
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surround the Democratic, western State of Israel.
Given the complexity of Israeli politics, it is difficult to come to a satisfactory political solution. But it is all the more difficult when the residents of Sderot and Ashkelon, civilians, are subjected to errant missiles that land on their hospitals, schools and kindergartens. The duty of the state is to protect the security of its citizens. This necessitates action on the part of the Israeli army.
Israeli leadership has made poor decisions; but there is a robust, independent media that is there to point out the errors and plenty of social action groups to advocate on behalf of the Palestinians.
Where is the independence in the Arab media? Where are the social action groups decrying the deaths of Israeli civilians and lobbying their leadership for policy changes?
It is precisely this imbalance that Anderson fails to report. He claims that Israel treats every Palestinian as a terrorist, yet he treats every Israeli as a monster complicit in the supposed extermination of the Palestinians.
Failing to explore, in a balanced fashion, the nuances of what is really going on is what makes the column counterproductive to advancing a solution.
The cessation of funds from America to one of its staunchest allies is not going to solve the plight of the Palestinians.
Daniel B. Moskowitz University of Kansas School of Law
BLOGS @KANSAN.COM Is Osama hiding in Orgrimmar?
The Bush administration seems to think that Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan. They are wrong. He is behind the auction house in Orgrimmar.
DIGITAL GLORY
From there he leads a vast terror network stretching from Kalimdor to the Eastern Kingdom and even into Outland. As ridiculous as all of this sounds, that is what the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity group, a US government funded program, believes.
—Chris Hickerson
The Washington Post did a story on the initiative back in February and WIRED had a followup.
The gist of the report is that Big Brother needs to infiltrate online games so that he can keep his vigilant eyes out for terrorists using them to recruit for or organize attacks. The report names several systems to look at, most notably, World of Warcraft and Second Life.
@ KANSAN.COM
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THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Alex Doherty, Brykan Dykman, Matt Erickson, Kelsey Hayes, Lauren Keith, Darla Silpie, Diane Smith and Ian Stanford.
COMMENTARY
Kids growing up faster and faster
Luckily for the students, the only thing more out of date than their teacher is the Georgia criminal code, which does not allow for the 8 and 9 year olds to be charged with a crime.
Otherwise, they would have to find time in their busy adult-like schedules for arraignments and Dateline NBC interviews.
Kids these days are so much more resourceful than I was at their age.
It used to be that all a kid had to worry about was being picked last for kickball or dodgall. (These were dangerous activities — like prostitution or iron smelting — that children were allowed to do in less-enlightened times.)
Now kids have therapy sessions, spinning classes and benefit dinners. I'd tell my children they are growing up too fast, but they ignore my e-mails on their Blackberrys.
Even misbehavior in school used to be simpler.
When I was in second grade, my class had a tyrannical teacher. She terrorized the children who ate the dried macaroni noodles used for multiplication problems. It was rumored she had pulled out a handful of a student's hair the year before. She kept me after school for using the word "nincompoop." She told me, "We don't swear in my classroom."
One day she was absent, so we made our move, picketing at lunch for her dismissal. The lunch lady reported us, and when our teacher returned, she questioned the ring-leaders: the girl who lived across the street from me and me.
The girl turned state's evidence, claiming it was all my idea.
Was it all my idea? On the advice of my lawyer, I refuse to answer that question in keeping with my rights under the Fifth Amendment.
Last week, though, third graders in Georgia took the reaction of frustrated students into the new millennium, plotting to attack their teacher with a broken steak knife.
The teacher asked why I did it. "Because we don't like you," I said. (I was a very forward child.) The rest of that school year was not fun.
The teacher was described as a "veteran educator," meaning she has old-fashioned notions regarding the appropriate times for students to stand on chairs. When she tried to stop a student who hadn't gotten the chair-standing memo, she precipitated the conflict.
They also had handcuffs (obviously brought by the student with the kinky parents) and electrical tape (brought by the student with possibly kinkier parents, or maybe just a parent who is an electrician).
Minster is a Lawrence senior in economics.
This teacher is apparently laboring under the old notion that childhood is an innocent time that is meant to be cherished. The new ideology is that childhood is the new virginity: something shameful that is flung away to the first older guy with a moped and a bad teenage moustache who comes along.
Without having to waste valuable Internet-surfing time ducting parental interviews, I can tell you right now what their parents would say: "It's all her fault. My precious little [non-harmful woodland creature] wouldn't hurt a [widely detested vermin]"
Of course they are correct. The teacher and her outdated worldview is to blame. Her obsolete pedagogy probably doesn't even have room for teacher-student sex, no matter how mature the 32-year-old teacher finds her 14-year-old male students to be. Get with the times, lady!
editorials around the state
Execs don't mention profits in gas prices
Bigwigs from the biggest U.S. oil companies made some salient points recently in a House of Representatives committee meeting.
In explaining the high and rising price of a tank of gas, they noted, correctly, that the decline of the U.S. dollar has been a factor in rising oil prices. They further cited growth in global demand, geopolitical circumstances, the rising costs of doing business and U.S. limits on where they can dig for oil as factors contributing to higher oil prices.
All have some validity. Conspicuously absent from their list, however, was their company profits. Last year those profits were considerable. In 2007, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP America, Chevron and Cono-
ASSOCIATED PRESS
coPhillips reaped a combined $123 billion in profits. Those are the companies whose officials gathered in the House committee hearing.
They said they need the generous tax breaks Congress provides them and argued that their profits are justified because theirs is a cyclical business. That's what they told
lawmakers two years ago when oil was about $60 a barrel, and it's what they said 18 months ago when oil was $75 a barrel. We'll bet they say it when a barrel of oil costs $125 or $150.
Oil companies are not only entitled to seek profits but must make profits to continue to operate. And there is much that the oil companies cannot control tension in the Middle East, for example.
Yet their straight-faced defense of such massive profits that result in part from the tax breaks subsidized by the same people who increasingly struggle to fill their tanks amounts to a defense of greed. The oil companies have needed and gotten help in the past. Now it's their customers who need help.
The Manhattan Mercury April 2 editorial
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