University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, March 1, 1988
TuesdayForum
5
Israelis have taken steps toward peace
A recent guest column in the Kansan by Mahmoud Ali missed the boat on the current Arab Israel conflict. The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is not the issue at stake here. What is at stake is the survival of the state of Israel. Israel calls for peace negotiations because it has seen the success of these negotiations in its dealings with Egypt. Ali's claim that Israel merely gave up one piece of land to Egypt to gain another from Lebanon is erroneous and overlooks the value of the Sinai.
Also, the invasion of Lebanon by the Israelis is not and never was justified solely on the basis of the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to London. Lebanon, by 1982, was serving as a base of operations and a training ground for Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists who consistently attacked civilian
When Israel returned the Sinai to the Egyptians, it left behind modern farming facilities, fully-developed settlements, intact airfields and enough oil reserves to fulfill Israel's energy needs for more than a decade. In total, Israel gave up wealth equal to its total gross national product when it signed the Camp David Accords.
Aaron
Rittmaster
Guest Columnist
Israeli-Jewish targets. Israel only entered Lebanon when it saw that the current "government" in Lebanon would not or could not stop the PLO attacks on civilians.
Ali is correct on one point — Israel did reject President Reagan's 1982 peace plan. But there are concrete reasons why the 1982 plan was unacceptable. Reagan's plan called for an undivided Jerusalem to return to the bargaining table. Israel will not allow Jerusalem to be placed on the bargaining table because it serves as its capital. Even more importantly though, between 1948 and 1967, while Jordan ruled over many of the Holy sites in Jerusalem, Jordan violated a U.N. armistry by not allowing Jews to pray at the Western Wall or use the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, where Jews have buried their dead for 2,500 years. Under Israeli rule, holy
places are governed by those to whom they are holy. For example, the Third Station of the Cross is governed by the Christians, and alloses share control of the site of the dome of the Rock Mosque with the Jews, for whom it is holy as the site of the Temple. Israel cannot bargain with the fate of Jerusalem.
hate of being wrong.
Another reason for the absence of bargaining with the PLO is the PLO's public stance of not accepting political solutions. A direct quote from the PLO Covenant Against Israel (Article 9): "Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine... The Palestinian Arab people affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution..."
Recent statements made on PLO sponsored media do nothing to support the statement that the PLO is now willing to recognize Israel's right to exist. Just last month, Yassir Arafat said in a Cairo newspaper interview, "The PLO will not cease to use its military option." Also last month, "Voice of PLO" on Radio Baghdad said: "Come, let us expel the murderous occupiers from every Palestinian city,
village, and camp. . Let us besiege them and strike at them with sticks, stones and bottles. Let us fill our streets with barricades and fight the forces of occupation in all places."
Israel's current actions in Gaza and the West Bank did not come unprovoked. As early as Dec. 10, 1987, PLO Radio Baghdad broadcast a message from Arafat calling for violent riots, to which some demonstrators responded by attacking small groups of Israeli soldiers with rocks, Molotov cocktails and knives. The soldiers were merely attempting to restore a semblance of order to the area when their lives were put in danger by the rioters. The soldiers reacted in self-defense, and escalation on both sides got out of hand. Israel is doing its part by prosecuting identified Israeli soldiers who participated in recent atrocities.
All of this would be a moot point if the Arabs had accepted the 1947 United Nations General Assembly Partition Plan, which would have created an Arab homeland more than twice the size of the proposed Jewish homeland. The Arabs instead chose to invade Israel the day after it declared independence. After the
War for Independence. Jordan occupied the West Bank, and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip for 19 years, but at no time was a separate Palestinian political unit created. There was no Palestinian political movement independent of other Arab nations until after 1967, when Jordan insisted on getting involved in Syria's and Egypt's war with Israel. By U.N. mandate, the same authority that Ali cities in his arguments, Jordan is the homeland of the Palestinian Arabs, and Jordan is the largest part of the mandate of Palestine.
Israel has taken a major step by opening itself to direct, one-on-one negotiations with a body which accepts the right of the State of Israel to exist. It is now the PLO's turn to make a positive step by repudiating the Covenant against Israel and disavowing the use of violence to force a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Direct peaceful negotiations require two willing parties.
English department may be stifling students' creativity
Aaron Rittmaster is an Overland Park sophomore majoring in journalism.
Instructors should be able to identify rough diamonds
The modern maxim, "You won't find any great writers coming out of the English department," basically is true. Students commonly experience genuine creativity stifled as faculty members busy try to conform those in their classes to a particular style or segment of literature. Then again, a professor may search for someone with a voice of his own, and when he does indeed hear one, he may mistake it for another's. Of course, that is not to say that on occasion an outstanding faculty member cannot be found in the English department, or that its students cannot learn grammar and spelling essential to fine writing. Naturally, a good writer can major in journalism and so on.
The best learning takes place through questioning, experimenting and reasoning. The truth is no less true after having been questioned; however, a lie may be proven false.
proven false.
Last school year the department of English circulated fiers announcing writing contests for the spring of '87. The exact wording for one of those contests was as
Jay Frank Guest Columnist
follows: "Edgar Wolfe Award: One or more awards for the best examples of creative writing (prose) by any University of Kansas student." One student (whom this student knew) after diligently examining the above criteria for entry, submitted a factual prose article written with a creative flair. The article had received an excellent grade from a faculty member and had been well-appreciated by others who had read it. After the contest, the writer picked up his paper, which had been judged as follows: "An interesting article but not fiction — 0 (scale 1-10)." Since when does creative prose writing have to be fiction?
that student also wrote a piece for a fiction class with the purpose of doing something different. Although most of his classmates did not grasp this experimental writing and were outraged, the leader of the class returned the
What were the judge's comments? "Experimental, but no story and many errors." Granted, the errors perceived may be attributable to the computer center printout, which makes P's and Q's look like O's and commaes look like periods. However, the actual writing (grammar, syntax, spelling) having been checked and double-checked by both student and teacher, was flawless. "No" by definition means "not any." The writer went back to read the instructor's encouragement to see if that which "works well" had been termed a "story." Indeed, at least in the place that is that comment, there exists "this story."
work to the student with comments including. "This story works well!" The instructor later submitted this example to the above mentioned contest.
exists "this way." Books written by are filled with classics of the world's best writers, ascribed to authors, playrights and poets beloved by mankind. However, many of these innovative writers were not recognized at first. In addition, history has recorded initial rejection of great people in fields of science, religion, exploration and sports, to name a few.
A similar example can be found in the world or art. Last year a show was presented in the galleries of several U.S. cities. The collection was entitled, "Impressionism,
The New Art, 1876-1892." Also displayed with paintings, drawings and sculptures were the words of the critics as they had appeared in print at the time of the New Art. A curious phenomenon existed here. Those high-brows of the art world were outraged at the first impressionists, intolerant of the movement; impressionism was not considered art. Yet the movement persisted and gradually was accepted, embraced and then praised by critics. Ironically, some years later when impressionism was carried one step further by pointilists, the original impressionists, who had at first been scorned, were outraged themselves.
outraged themselves.
It seems some critics in the department of English would call a diamond in the rough a piece of glass. Yet even though uncut, a diamond has the durability to withstand the bite of harsh judgment. Yes, and it has power not only to withstand but also to break the gnashing teeth of false judgment. Rest assured that after it has been faceted under the steady and patient hands of the jeweler, a gem will emerge in a brilliance that shows the baubles of its critics for what they are, mere trinkets.
Jay Frank is a former KU student living in Palm Springs, Calif.
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