Kevin Woghiren

WHY ISRAEL MUST END THE CONFLICT

By Kevin Woghiren

The Gaza-Israeli conflict continues into its 8th day with increased violence, a ground invasion by the Israeli military, and the number of innocent casualties continuing to rise. This has become a political war, and not a defensive one, with the Israeli Government admitting and acknowledging that its response to Hamas’ rockets is disproportionate because past “proportionate” measures were unsuccessful. Hamas’ rockets have claimed far less than a dozen innocent Israeli lives since the beginning of the conflict while Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has claimed thousands of lives including one in every four being an innocent civilian.

This is clearly Israel’s attempt of a regime change in Gaza even though it claims that is not the case. The attacks have been premeditated by Israel with the help of the United States Military, which Israel has also admitted through the countless simulations it started several months ago by practicing urban warfare in a life size re-creation of Gaza’s city streets in Israel. Hamas’ regime is, I think, to blame for ending the ceasefire but the Israeli Government can not use this as a scapegoat to begin an all out war with the people of Gaza.

Israel is only proving to the international community that it is still bitter about its failed conflict with Lebanon and Hezbollah in 2006 that ended in a draw and countless casualties on both sides. Anti-Israel ire will only exacerbate in the Middle East and the Arab world with continuance of this conflict as future generations grow up without their loved ones and Muslim opponents of Hamas begin to sympathize and align with the radical party, even though they do not agree with it’s ideology.

WHY PALESTINE MUST END IT’S CONFLICT WITH ISRAEL

By Pratik Desai (pdesai4@luc.edu) Loyola University Chicago class of 2010

 It has come to my attention that a lot of people in the City of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago have been speaking out loudly in protest against Israel. In light of recent security breaches, Israel has been retaliating against HAMAS in the Gaza Strip. HAMAS, a militant Palestinian political party classified as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union, Canada, and many others, has used violence against Israeli civilians, Israeli military forces, as well as its own people (who happened to be members of the opposition Fatah political party).

An unfortunate crusade of George W. Bush’s for democracy in the Middle East, when the people don’t have a dictator to hate, they hire goons to run their government. HAMAS should not be allowed to call any shots at the bargaining table of Middle East talks because it has explicitly stated in its charter that its goal is the destruction of Israel, and has made numerous anti-Semitic remarks. Should we take seriously a group that affirms power with martyrdom? I often wonder why the Palestinians elected an extremist party knowing that more Palestinians would potentially be put in harms way from Israeli retaliatory attacks.

If the Israel-Palestine conflict is to be solved, both parties need to show some humility and march towards a neutral, co-existing peace through a two-state solution. We cannot tolerate extremists in Palestine, and it is to their benefit to either vote the moderate Fatah back into power or support another non-militant political party. For if extremism pervades in Palestine, the Israelis will force the moderate Kadima leadership out of power and vote in a more hawkish, right-wing party led by leaders such as Benjamin Netanyahu, who have pledged to fight Palestinian aggression to the very last drop of blood. The Palestinian people will be driven to their graves if a right wing party rules Israel, which according to recent public opinion polling, is a strong likelihood.