The article that ran in Feb. 13 issue of The Scout about American and Israeli relations with Arab countries surrounding Israel was poorly researched and written.
If you want to write an article about how you hate Valentine’s day or how you believe student-athletes don’t receive enough recognition for their academic achievements, I wouldn’t expect you to dig too deep in your research.
But, if you plan to write an article on sensitive issues such as current relations between countries in the Middle East, it would be best that in the future you do a little homework.
Mike Kittleson first implies that it was the United States who heavily pushed for the creation of a Jewish country when it was in fact Russia. The United States had little to do with campaigning for the recognition of Israel, while Russia and other European nations heavily supported it.
Kittleson then looks to draw a comparison between the land making up Israel and the land of Illinois. He asks, “Would we have given up our homes, our land and our resources without a fuss?”
This comparison is irrelevant and in no way is it remotely similar to the conditions in which Israel was obtained. Israel was nothing more then a desert when the U.N. recognized the original land as the state of Israel.
It was the Jewish people who built up this land into an inhabitable living environment. As far as resources are concerned, the primary ones come from the Dead Sea, a body of water that borders both Israel and Jordan, shared and providing natural resources equally between these two countries.
At the time Israel became a state, there were no factories mining this area – the Jewish people built them.
Kittleson also suggests that solely Israel and America block off aid to the area. For aid to be blocked off, it would need to be blocked off from both borders – the border with Israel and the border with Egypt, another Arab country.
It was also Israel who came to the aid of Jordan when the Palestinians invaded and tried to take over their land.
In addition, the image provided of Israel being a constant war-zone is incorrect. Yes, there is a conflict taking place in Israel, but only in one specific region – the Gaza Strip – as opposed to the entire country as Kittleson suggests.
The Israeli government has the right to defend its people and look to protect their citizens from harm. The Israeli people are the primary concern of the Israeli government, not the Palestinians who elect a terrorist party to lead their country and allow militants to launch rockets from civilian neighborhoods into Israel while hiding these rocket-launchers among civilian “shields.”
Israel, by no means, is defending itself from another country’s common man or woman, but rather from the terrorists who lie within.
Can the same be said about the Palestinians?
Michael Rosenfeld
Senior advertising major
