Today’s Oregonian printed an opinion from a Palestinian Reed college student who had gone to Israel to attend Birzeit University to the "Palestinian West Bank." I note that she is already calling it Palestinian, though I don’t remember hearing that it has become Palestine as yet. To Israelis it is still Judea and Samaria, though newspapers refer to it as "The West Bank".
She was angry because she was detained and questioned, and then told to make this her "last trip to Israel." She was put out because she was an American and thought that because of this, shouldn’t have been treated as other Palestinians living in the area.
I guess the word isn’t out at Reed College that Israel and the Palestinians are at war with other. Gazan Palestinian terrorists have been firing rockets at Israel for the past seven years. Palestinians from East Jerusalem have twice lately attacked a Jewish school and now one rammed two buses and ran into pedestrians and cars in Jerusalem in a terrorist frenzy about two days ago.
On the front page of today’s Sunday paper was an article called "Detainees’ fingerprints reveal prior US arrests. In other words, many people abroad who have been detained have been found to have lived in the US and got into trouble in one way or another and have their fingerprints on file. This is more evidence that a Palestinian American is a possibility of being a terrorist. Even women, young women and older have been known terrorists. The very fact that she was also a Palestinian made her suspect. She couldn’t understand that.
That’s why three crossings between Israel and Gaza were reopened today, three days after they were shut after rockets were fired from there. Hamas terrorists rule from Gaza. They fired even though there was a two-week truce in place. They can’t go very long without firing, so Israel has to continue to be on guard, truce or no truce. That means that Palestinians walking through Israel that are new are going to be checked out.
No, Israel isn't exactly like America. Americans are not putting up with rockets fired into their neighborhood. I don't believe that any neighborhood would put up with being attacked for seven years, either. That's because America is a powerful and free country. Israel hasn't obtained that luxury yet. It's still fighting for it's independence and freedom to pursue life and freedom from terrorism and hatred.
Reference: Oregonian newspaper, July 7, 2008; front page, editorial page
AFP via Yahoo News, UPI, Fox News
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