Ilya Feoktistov '06 was so kind as to offer us a dramatic interpretation of a suicide bombing ("Allahu Akbar and a Bang," Jan. 11). Allow me a moment for a slightly different tale.
The sun beats down, baking the harsh, arid land. No rain has fallen in months. A line of Arab men, women and children forms slowly as people shuffle toward the barbed-wire barrier. They assemble in a queue in front of a checkpoint, manned by a group of heavily-armed Israeli teenagers, dressed up in military uniforms and sent out by their government to protect and serve.
This is a society where one person's access to land, water and employment is at the mercy of another. The Arab farmer waits in line to cross into Israel to access the water on which his farmland depends. Some days, when the lines are long and the system is slow, he cannot cross back through the barrier and must wait until the following day. The opportunity to tend to his lands, provide for his family and truly have a sense of self-worth and self-determination is not in his control. The Israeli occupation has placed these matters firmly out of his hands.
Every issue has two sides. You tell me the story of suicide bombers, and I ask you to tell me about the conditions which lead to these events. How a man or a woman could believe that massacring others by killing themselves is the surest way to achieve their ends. Why not tell me about the lack of access to education for the Palestinian masses or the lack of hope in a real political alternative? Why not show me how easy it must be for the hoards of frustrated, agitated youth to fill the educational vacuum with extremist propaganda, generated within the refugee camps adorning Israel's borders, where generations of displaced Palestinians have now been born and raised?
In today's world, a focus on militant Islam is firmly rooted. Gory descriptions of Muslims who have blown themselves up in heavily-populated public spaces, accompanied by photographs of blood spattered walls, can be found in any newspaper. Suicide bombing is evil. Only the extremists who are willing to engage in such actions, or who standby and celebrate their martyred brothers would disagree. Feoktistov's descriptive piece does nothing to further our understanding of the issues at hand.
Not only was I disturbed by what Feoktistov left unsaid; I must also take issue with what he did care to mention. Even a cursory glance at history reveals that being a peaceful nation is not a pre-requisite for achieving statehood. Israel's sixth prime minister, Menachem Begin, was a member of the terrorist organization Irgun, whose repertoire included the King David Hotel Bombing of 1946 which killed 91 people and injured 45 others. Such terrorist action was instrumental in pressuring the British to allow for the creation of Israel. If you look at history, including the history of Israel, the use of armed struggle and violence is a most common occurrence in the quest for statehood. I am not condoning the use of violence. I believe simply that we should not follow in the path of Feoktistov, allowing historical memory to be so easily erased by a zealous outlook.
Furthermore, I find Feoktistov's description of the dubious Arab other most offensive. Despite his portrayal of Islam as a facilitator of militancy, despite the Western media's obsession with Arab terrorism in the wake of Sept. 11, despite all of this, we must remember that there exists a global population of Muslims who live their lives with a normalcy that never makes the evening news. Creative exercises such as "Allahu Akbar and a Bang" do nothing but breed the ignorance involved with the Western World's understanding of Islam. Where there is religion, there is fundamentalism. From L.K Advani, the Hindu fundamentalist who spearheaded the massacre of Muslims in Ayodhya in 1992 to Yigal Amir, the messianic Jewish fundamentalist responsible for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, it must never be forgotten that extremism spans all religion.
And finally, I must draw attention to the author's criticism of Mahmoud Abbas' statement to Muslim extremists, that "suicide bombings hurt the national interests of the Palestinian people." As a leader, it his indeed Abbas' moral duty to circumvent attacks on Israeli civilians. Surely it would be ineffective to appeal to future suicide bombers' sense of humanity, when it is clear that they have no regard for Israeli life. It takes little rational reasoning to understand Abbas' call to the Muslim extremists; rather appeal to their political objectives than attempt to summon sentiments of sympathy for Israel.
