A road block to peace
The recent appointment of Ahmad Queria as prime minister of thePalestinian Authority laments that the Bush administration’sroadmap to peace could be in drastic jeopardy.
Our coalitions with multiple Arabic governments may also fall ifthe United States does not endorse the appointment of Mr.Queria.
Alliances among the governments of Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan andEgypt lay in the balance of the United States response.
Three factors may be established in order to restore trustwithin the Palestinian Authority; its ties with terroristorganizations greatly effect its credibility.
1. The United States must be willing to support on a militaryfront the seizure and/or killing of high-ranking terroristofficials within the Islamic Jihad movement, most notablyHamas.
2. Stabilizing and assuring the Arab World that Israel will notuse nuclear force against any Arab nation.
3. Humanitarian aid for the influx of poverty throughoutPalestine.
Points one and three may be easily connected to one another. Dueto the mass-proportion of poverty throughout Palestine, (almost 60percent live below the poverty line), Hamas has the funds toprovide and protect a multitude of the refugees throughout theregion. Secondly, by providing education, medical care and food tothe general public, Hamas has definitely gained the inherent trustof the majority of the Palestinian people.
It is evident that the United States cannot simply assassinateor replace Yassar Arafat, due to his immense popularity within thepublic sector.
However, the United States does have the ability to control manyof the institutions of the Israeli government. Our military aid tothe nation is almost unsurpassed on a per-capita basis.
If the Bush administration finds a way to convince the Israeligovernment to back off on their border control, settlements and,most notably, the construction of the wall throughout the GazaStrip, peace might have a better chance to survive in theregion.
Still, Mr. Queria must find a solution for delaying andhopefully stopping the incredible amounts of suicide bombings thathave wrecked the Israeli economy. Without this element of theroadmap, the theme of generational genocide will continuethroughout the region on both sides.
Upon reflecting on the past three years of violence throughoutthe Middle East, I start to think about why the United Statesworries itself with this situation that might correlate withAmerican deaths in the near future.
I am reminded of my summer in Washington, when I had theopportunity one afternoon to speak with Sen. Robert Byrd, thedistinguished senator from West Virginia. While pondering thequestions of isolationism versus unilateralism, Sen. Byrd pulledout a copy of the list of persons killed since the Six Day War in1967, a list that went on for over one-hundred pages, whichincluded multiple numbers of women and children. I recall oneinstance where a couple had just been married the week before,dying in a suicide bomb attack outside Jerusalem with the motherbeing two months away from the couple’s first child.
It is these people that we fight for! The United States does notsit back and watch innocent people die for the advancement of a fewalong political boundaries. We stand for democracy, the evolutionand opportunity for every child to receive the same benefits thatyou and I do. I urge you to support your country and to not forgetthe people on that list.
