After reading the fabrication by Elie Dvorin, I couldn’t help but try to restore some truths and realities blatantly torched by his editorial on Yasser Arafat. It is shocking that the DI would print such militant garbage that relies heavily upon lies and distortion.

For some time now, many people have tried to show this narrow and skewed picture of the Palestinian conflict. The U.S. media and countless number of “Elies” have spoon-fed the public this chaotic and tactfully censored picture of the failures of the Palestinian plight. However, let us reveal something that has been scarce: the truth. Arafat’s supposed partners for peace, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have all been heavily accused of war crimes against innocent Palestinians. These are leaders who want to picture the Palestinians forever in their current state of distress and even, ultimately, in annihilation. Ariel Sharon once confirmed this by saying: “I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area.” It is quite ironic that a land founded upon freedom for persecuted people is currently an offensive base for genocide.

I do believe it was hypocritical for Arafat to win the Nobel Peace Prize while having relations with fundamentalist organizations that preached anti-Semitic propaganda and sponsoring the violent policies undertaken by an affiliate criminal group, Al-Fatah. This, however, does not overshadow or justify the villainous profiles of the Israeli leaders who are so solemnly exempt from any blame.

Israeli judicial courts convicted Sharon of war crimes for his direct involvement in the genocide of nearly 2,000 innocent Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Chatila and, consequently, stripped away his position as Defense Minister. He rationalized this and other atrocious actions against innocent refugees by boasting a military “blank check” to attack and extinguish any targets he deemed a risk to Israeli sovereignty without regard to international law.

Arafat was one of the first world leaders to offer sympathy to U.S. citizens after Sept. 11, 2001, and instituted numerous successful blood drives to combat the shortages experienced in the United States. However, the Israeli media, focused on spreading deception, directed their cameras on a small, unrepresentative minority of Hamas supporters celebrating 9-11.

Arafat was the leader who recognized Israel and accepted the worldwide offer of a two-state solution, which Israel stubbornly rejected. He gave the death penalty to 50 murderous and fundamentalist Palestinians who threatened Israel, while conceding 78 percent of the land that the British Mandate declared Palestine. Through all of these concessions, the Israeli government has yet to offer but one.

In 2000, Israeli forces fired more than 1,300,000 bullets over a span of a few days in the occupied lands. Since the beginning of the millennium, more than 630 children were fatally maimed, while 32 percent of them were shot in the head or neck.

According to the Geneva Convention, it is the responsibility of the occupying forces to institute stability and peace in occupied lands; that responsibility does not fall on the occupied. As Sharon has complete control over his forces and sovereign land, Arafat’s group is not a sovereign state, but a political party that, at the height of its power, had control of only 17 percent of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Even though we must acknowledge the violence arising from conflicting fundamentalist groups, they are in no way comparable to the cold and ruthless Israeli-sponsored state terrorism that is justified under a bloody, deceptive veil for defense.

Joseph Danavi

Junior in LAS