Featured this weekBen-Gurion Brandeis Buffalo Chicago Colorado Cornell Georgetown Harvard King's College Manitoba Maryland MIT Oklahoma Princeton Technion Tennessee Temple Texas Texas at El Paso UCLA UMBC Villanova Weizmann Institute of Science William Paterson | U.S. Promises Humanitarian Help to Palestinians
by Sue Pleming The U.S. will continue providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people but Washington will not give any financial help to a Hamas-led government, David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, told Congress Thursday. "We have not, do not, and will not provide assistance to Hamas - in government or out of government," he said. (Reuters)
See also EU Bails Out Palestinians (Times-UK)
Additional Headlines Abbas: Al-Qaeda Is in Gaza, West Bank Poll: Most Palestinians Back Peace Process U.S. Urges UAE to End Boycott of Israel | | 'Israel in Midst of New Terror Wave'
by Margot Dudkevitch Security forces warned last week that Israel was in the midst of a new wave of terror attacks. Since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections, there had been a sharp increase in stone throwing, firebomb and stabbing incidents, they said. Security officials estimated that these would continue to increase, but added that shooting attacks such as the two that took place Wednesday do not signify an upsurge in such types of attack. (Jerusalem Post)
See also Is This a New Intifada? (Jerusalem Post)
The Dangers of Political Islam
by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen  Political Islam is many things: totalitarian, aggressive, conquering, cocksure about its superiority and destiny to rule, intolerant, bristling with resentment, and only tenuously in touch with aspects of reality. But what marks it most distinctively are two things: its religious consecration of its tenets, emotions, and goals, which are putatively grounded in Allah's will and to which slavish devotion is due; and its cult of death, which produces its extreme danger and has three central components. Political Islam resembles the international communist movement in its heyday. (The New Republic)
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Ben-Gurion: Egyptian Friendliness a Surprise to Student Visitors
by Orly Halpern  It was the first time any of the 43 Ben-Gurion University students stepped into an Arab country. They expected poverty, backwardness, and hostility. But they saw something else in Egypt. The number of Israelis traveling to Egypt has not yet returned to pre-intifada highs. But Professor Yoram Meital, Chairman of the Herzog Middle East Studies Center at Ben-Gurion University, is increasing that number. Meital brought BA and MA students for a two-week trip to visit Egypt. (Jerusalem Post)
Chicago: Hitchens, Halkin Debate Gaza Pullout in Packed Room
by Joe Riina-Ferrie  Students, faculty, and community members last week came to see writers Christopher Hitchens and Hillel Halkin in a debate entitled "Appeasing Terrorists? Evaluating Gaza Disengagement," presented by Chicago Friends of Israel. Hitchens began by arguing for two separate states. "There's a very good reason that the two-state solution won't work," said Halkin. (Chicago Maroon)
| | UCLA: Alum Proposes Israeli-Palestinian Union
by Jennifer Mishory  A plan created by a local attorney to create a confederation of Israelis and Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza was introduced at a symposium at UCLA last week. UCLA alumnus Josef Avesar introduced his idea for a coalition of representatives that would act alongside the existing Israeli and Palestinian governments. The Israeli-Palestinian Confederation, the name of both the group and the proposed plan, hopes such a confederation will work as a mechanism for cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. (Daily Bruin)
Colorado: The Fight for Peace
by Jaclyn Grossfield  Hamas, a radical Islamic political group, was elected to lead the Palestinian Authority last month, a decision that affects pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli students living halfway around the world. Hamas, which has claimed responsibility for many international terrorist acts, flared debate when it claimed victory in Palestine's parlimentary elections in January, winning 70 of 132 seats in recent elections. (Campus Press)
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Point-Counterpoint - Is a Two-State Solution Still Viable?
Is Palestinian Statehood Still a Valid Option?
by Zalman Shoval -
The cornerstone of Hamas' program, its very raison-d'etre, is the destruction of Israel, replacing it with an Islamist, fundamentalist, intolerant state reaching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River and beyond. The dominant theme of all their statements includes no territorial compromise - no peace even if Israel were to hand over all the territories and eastern Jerusalem; at most, some sort of temporary armistice (hudna). -
The world attaches much too great an importance to the question of whether Hamas will recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel doesn't need approval from the likes of Hamas - rather it's the other way around: Should Israel recognize, under present circumstances, the Palestinians' right to a state? -
The fact that Hamas and its future government refuse to take upon themselves the most fundamental obligations under the "roadmap," let alone previous agreements such as Oslo, Paris, Wye, and Sharm E-Sheik, and to do away with the "right of return," dictates a reevaluation of Palestinian statehood as an American and Israeli goal. -
An often-cited argument for Palestinian statehood is that it would solve the Palestinian refugee problem once and for all. Yet it should be clear to anyone that the future Palestinian state won't be able, economically and demographically, to absorb more than about 10-15 percent of the total refugee population, and the refugee issue will continue to be a ticking time-bomb endangering the stability of the whole Middle East. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) | | Debating the Two-State Solution
by Tovah Lazaroff - According to MK Benny Elon, head of the National Union Party, Hamas's failure to recognize Israel means the end of a two-state solution on this side of the Jordan River, "It's very clear there is no two-state solution," Elon said.
- Labor MK Colette Avital and Meretz faction leader Zehava Gal-On said a Hamas led-PA would delay but did not destroy the inevitable solution of two states for two peoples on this side of the Jordan river. "There may not be a two-state solution within the parameters of mutual understanding, or an agreement or negotiation," said Avital.
- "I disagree with [Foreign Minister] Tzipi Livni that Abu Mazen is irrelevant," said Avital. Israel should also be insisting that the international community not recognize a unilaterally-declared Hamas state, she said. Re-occupying the Palestinian areas is not a solution. "I do not foresee any other solution, if it happens with us or without us," she said.
- Gal-On said that while Hamas was not a partner for peace, the idea of a two-state solution isn't necessarily dead. In the long run it is the best solution for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. "It's in Israel's best interest to leave the territories," said Gal-On.
- The presence of Hamas has changed the method of withdrawal, but not the fact that Israel needs to withdraw. It's more likely that Israel would take unilateral steps, Gal-On said. (Jerusalem Post)
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