The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Let Palestinians rule their own affairs

In Friday's guest column [pg. 6], Max Boot tells us how he believes the Western world lets Arafat get away with terrorism. His simplistic account of the Arab-Israeli conflict and his perpetuation of popular myths about it call for placing his statements in perspective.

First of all, the term terrorism is ambiguous. Menachim Begin was Israel's Prime Minister from 1977 to 1983 and also a Nobel Prize laureate. However in the 1940s Begin headed the (terrorist) organization Irgun that was responsible for the bombing of Jerusalem's King David Hotel in 1946, which killed 91 people, most of them civilians. Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli Prime Minister, was Minister of Defense from 1981-1983 and oversaw at that time the invasion of Lebanon. He let the Lebanese Christian Phalanges massacre women and children in the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila while Israeli troops stood by. Sharon was found responsible and dismissed from the government by Begin.

Second, according to Boot, Arafat is responsible for the rejection of Israel's "generous offer" at the Camp David peace talks. This is the one-sided view that the Israelis and the United States successfully conveyed to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, the Palestinians did not perceive of an Israeli "offer:" they would merely get back what was legitimately theirs (as several UN resolutions could attest). Was the 95 percent generous? In the final "offer" made by Ehud Barak (after numerous other "final offers"), the West Bank would be cut into three separate parts. The division of the West Bank would be due to the roads connecting the Israeli settlements which are off limits to Palestinians. In East Jerusalem the Palestinians would get only civil administration over the Arabic parts while ultimate authority would still be in Israeli hands.

Note that the Israeli settlements are illegal by international law, and that annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel has never been recognized by the international community. Plus, many Palestinians believed that Arafat was conceding too much to the Israelis!

Third, fortunately Boot does admit that Arafat's system of patronage was upheld and even encouraged by the United States (in order to curb "extremist influences" on the peace process).

Was George W. Bush so courageous to stop dealing with Arafat when he demanded from the Palestinians to elect another leader? Can anyone remember the outrage in the United States when the British newspaper the Guardian encouraged readers to send letters to undecided voters to vote for John Kerry?

Arafat was democratically elected by the Palestinians as president of the Palestinian Authority. Maybe George W. Bush could also pressure the Israelis to get rid of their elected "terrorist" Prime Minister Sharon. Meddling in Palestinian affairs will only obstruct reformist forces in Palestine, since reformers will be associated with the United States, which is rightly not seen as a neutral arbiter. Of course, we all want to support democratic Palestinians, but the world should stop telling the Palestinians how to rule their own affairs.

Marinus is a doctoral student in political science. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the DAILY EGYPTIAN.

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