Finally, the ball lands in the Palestinian court--the Palestinians and their Arab supporters must convince Israel beyond a reasonable doubt that they support the right of Israel and Jews to exist in the area. Otherwise, for Israel to allow a fully-fledged Palestinian state to develop and arm itself would be tantamount to suicide.

Unfortunately, this convincing will not be easy. The Palestinians have only been occupied by Israel since 1967 but they have sought its destruction since 1948. In the past 50 years Israel has been attacked no less than five times by the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states. Until very recently, the Palestinian charter called for the destruction of Israel. Palestinian textbooks often don't acknowledge the existence of Israel. Palestinian clerics call upon their congregants to slaughter Jews. Hate crimes against Jews by Palestinians have skyrocketed all over the the world in the past six weeks. My own synagogue had a window smashed by a young Palestinian-American.

Many people think that Israel is invincible, but it's not. It's a country of four million Jews surrounded by 100 million hostile Muslims, and it can only afford to lose one war. Israelis truly fear for their survival, and the grim reality--fair or not--is that the Palestinians must assuage these fears before any long-term peaceful co-existence can be possible.

David H. Goldbrenner '96-'97

New York, NY

Nov. 20, 2000

The writer is a former Crimson executive.