{"id":5775,"date":"2014-11-03T09:39:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T14:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/?p=5775"},"modified":"2014-11-03T09:39:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T14:39:02","slug":"a-response-to-israels-choice-dead-end-or-two-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/2014\/11\/03\/a-response-to-israels-choice-dead-end-or-two-state\/","title":{"rendered":"A Response to \u201cIsrael\u2019s Choice: Dead End or Two-State\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"from<\/a>
Photo from Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, four-term senator and ambassador, once said, \u201cYou\u2019re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.\u201d Unfortunately these words ring too true in last month\u2019s article, \u201cIsrael\u2019s Choice: Dead End or Two-State,\u201d by Priom Islam. In his article, although some of his conclusions are correct, Islam engages in misleading and untruthful journalism. It is for this reason why I feel the need to respond.<\/p>\n

In his first two paragraphs, it seems as though the author is trying give a balanced account of what happened over this past summer. He begins by writing that Israel \u201caccused Hamas of rearming itself and firing rockets into southern Israel.\u201d Either he doesn\u2019t understand what the word accused means, or just forgot to mention that Israel has experienced rocket fire from Hamas both before and after the kidnapping of the three boys. Israel did accuse Hamas of firing rockets. They accused the terrorist organization of doing so because, well, that is exactly what Hamas did. It may seem that I\u2019m being nitpicky, but using the word \u201caccused\u201d implies that this event may not have happened when in fact, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip is real and ongoing.<\/p>\n

The next part of Islam\u2019s article perplexes me further. He writes that, \u201cfollowing the kidnapping, Israel used a subsequent investigation as a pretext to launch an offensive against Hamas.\u201d First of all, immediately following the kidnapping and death of the boys, Israel did not enter the Gaza Strip; they entered the West Bank. They did this in order to find the boys and their kidnappers. While Israel was doing this, Hamas started increasing rocket fire into Israel (I use the word increase because there was rocket fire before the three boys were kidnapped). And after Israel had taken enough rockets, they decided to enter the Gaza Strip. The pretext was clear\u2014weaken the infrastructure of Hamas and stop the rocket fire.<\/p>\n

Later in the next paragraph, the author makes the claim that although Israeli forces were planning on leaving, \u201cevents quickly took on a life of their own.\u201d I\u2019m not really sure what the author meant by this statement. Yes, Israeli forces did not want Operation Protective Edge to be a prolonged offensive, but while in Gaza, they discovered tunnels which were being constructed from Gaza into Israel.[1]<\/a> These tunnels, whose express purpose was to kill and kidnap Israeli civilians[2]<\/a>, obviously were intolerable and had to be destroyed. This was accomplished thanks to the operation.<\/p>\n

In response to the murder of Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali, as the author says, a few Israeli terrorists burned a Palestinian boy alive. Furthermore, hundreds of Israelis took to the streets and chanted despicable slogans like \u201cDeath to the Arabs.\u201d However, these two atrocities are not morally equivalent. The Israeli government condemned the murder of the Palestinian teen, and many of the racist protestors were arrested[3]<\/a>. On the Palestinian side, Abbas did condemn the murder of three boys and even cooperated with the IDF to help them conduct searches for the murderers in the West Bank. However, Hamas failed to condemn the murderers and some of their government officials even praised them. Furthermore, although Hamas denies direct involvement with the kidnappings, they don\u2019t deny that the murderers were members of their group.[4]<\/a> So drawing a moral equivalent between the Israeli murderers of the Palestinian (who were largely condemned and later prosecuted), and the Palestinian murderers of the Israelis (who were not condemned by the organization of the killers) is misleading and wrong.<\/p>\n

Islam writes that this event indicates a takeover of Israeli society by extremists who used to live on the fringe. He uses the act of a few to describe the feelings of the many without providing any proof for this statement. Islam also uses this provincial line of thinking later on when he says that Zionism \u201chas come to encompass all the land over which Palestinians call home.\u201d Some Zionists definitely do believe that all of Israel and Palestine should be controlled by Israel, but it\u2019s incorrect to say that all of them do. Many Zionists (including this one) are opposed to settlements and believe strongly in a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

The last claim of the author I\u2019d like to write about is the author\u2019s statements on the naval blockade, checkpoints, and the secession of steel and concrete being brought into the Gaza Strip. These are all unfortunate realities that the Palestinian people live with. Islam writes, though, that blaming this all on Hamas would be \u201cgrossly misinformed.\u201d He does write that Israel endorses these policies on the basis of security, yet he obviously does not believe those reasons to be legitimate. Personally, I believe this opinion is the one that is \u201cgrossly misinformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas uses concrete to build the tunnels previously mentioned and accumulated eight hundred tons of it to build these tunnels.[5]<\/a> Who, in their right mind, would ever ask Israel to provide materials to its neighbor who has a past of using that material for aggressive purposes? With regard to the naval blockade, it is definitely debilitating to the Palestinian economy, but it must remain in place to ensure that Hamas, a terrorist proxy of Iran, does not receive weapons that could threaten Israel\u2019s population.[6]<\/a> It is also worth noting that contrary to what the author writes, Israel has not \u201crecently restricted fishing waters from six miles off the Gaza coast to three.\u201d In fact, Israel agreed as part of the ceasefire on August 26th<\/sup> (thirty-eight days before the publication of Islam\u2019s article) to extend the permitted fishing zone to six miles off the coast.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

I could go on with more allegations of Islam\u2019s inaccuracies, but I won\u2019t and will rather end on a point where we agree: the two-state solution is the only viable way to end this conflict. It has lasted too long and both sides have suffered too much. However, it is important to understand that this conflict is not simply one of \u201cthe aggressors vs. the oppressed.\u201d It\u2019s a conflict deeply rooted in history where the Palestinians have been the victims of anti-Semitic leaders who hate Israel more than they love their own people. Israel and the international community have offered the Palestinians a state multiple times, only to have the state rejected and occasionally met with violence. This conflict is therefore complex and multifaceted. So writing articles like Mr. Islam\u2019s without providing context for complicated scenarios and providing misinformation for very simple ones, serves no purpose except to mislead the readership.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/politics\/2014\/10\/gaza-tunnel-plot-israeli-intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/idf-confirms-hamas-planned-massive-tunnel-attack\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> http:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/articles\/0,7340,L-4536910,00.html<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/sep\/23\/israel-kills-palestinian-suspects-teenagers-murder<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/morning-mix\/wp\/2014\/07\/21\/how-hamas-uses-its-tunnels-to-kill-and-capture-israeli-soldiers\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/03\/05\/us-israel-gaza-ship-idUSBREA240X720140305<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/aug\/26\/gaza-ceasefire-israel-palestinians-halt-fighting<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, four-term senator and ambassador, once said, \u201cYou\u2019re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.\u201d Unfortunately these words ring too true in last month\u2019s article, \u201cIsrael\u2019s Choice: Dead End or Two-State,\u201d by Priom Islam. In his article, although some of his conclusions are correct, Islam engages in misleading and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[73,1050,1095,1509,1596,1624,1854],"class_list":["post-5775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nation-and-world","tag-abbas","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-opinions","tag-palestine","tag-response"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}