UAS takes right steps, humanizes conflict

Bernstein is a fourth-year political science student and former
president of Bruins for Israel.  

By Julie Bernstein

I would like to commend the United Arab Society for their
sensitive and thoughtful presentation of the situation in Israel
yesterday on BruinWalk. The leaders of UAS recognized the need to
humanize the conflict in the region and focus on the humanitarian
and ethical issues ““ a message that is central to any
political dialogue and to a lasting solution.

In the recent past, student groups at UCLA on both sides of the
issue have resorted to inflammatory and insulting political
rhetoric that is ultimately counterproductive. Blanket
characterizations have equated all Palestinians with terrorists and
have labeled Arafat a murderer. True, the actions of suicide
bombers and the murder of innocent Israeli civilians are abhorrent
and inhumane acts of terrorism, but the Palestinian people are
entitled to pursue national self-determination.

Similarly, oft-used equations against the pro-Israel and Jewish
students at UCLA, Zionism = Racism, Jews = Nazis and Sharon =
Hitler, are unfounded and degrading. These psychological tools
oversimplify or reduce complex political situations for uninformed
audiences; mnemonic devices that carry no factual credibility.

I commend the leaders of the UAS for choosing not to follow the
example of pro-Palestinian students at UC Berkeley, whose violent
incitement undercuts the very basis of the peace process. If Israel
is to continue to take risks for peace, its people must see that
Arab leaders, and the leaders of the next generation, are taking
steps to socialize their people in favor of reconciliation, not
continuous confrontation.

Palestinian and other Arab leaders have done little to prepare
their peoples for the inevitable compromises that must be reached.
Instead, these leaders summon their peoples to accept nothing less
than 100 percent from Israel and to organize public campaigns to
incite hatred and violence. Vitriolic anti-Israel and anti-Jewish
propaganda is commonplace in the official press, TV programming and
school textbooks of the Palestinians and Egyptians.

Palestinian leaders continue to orchestrate violence, allow
terrorist groups to organize, release terrorists from jail, openly
praise dead terrorists who kill innocent Israeli civilians, and
publicly deny any historic Jewish connection to the land of Israel
and Jerusalem. In countries like Egypt and Jordan that have peace
agreements with Israel, Israeli academics, scientists, artists and
diplomats are still shunned by their counterparts.

I commend the leaders of UAS for working to combat the
oversimplification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Recent
Daily Bruins submissions like that by Christopher Neal
(“American apathy toward Palestinian plight inhumane,”
Viewpoint, May 13) speak vaguely of systematic killings ““ an
unsubstantiated fact passed off under the veil of a humanitarian
guardsman ““ and fail to address historical complexities and
the reality of the current peace process.

I hope yesterday’s presentation by UAS will usher in a new
era of dialogue on the UCLA campus -““ a dialogue that resists
reductionism and works to approach the current conflict in
realistic and constructive ways.