Don’t take sides on Middle East conflict

In his Oct. 23 column, “The war within,” Michael Stauch writes, “Some people will undoubtedly protest what I write here. They will say that I am doing a disservice to King’s legacy.”  

Indeed, I do protest. However, my point is less to do with King’s legacy than Stauch’s veiled attack on a democratic country. Stauch’s failure to recognize the right of supporters of Israel to candlelight vigils, using pointed words like “apartheid” and “brutal siege,” is the primary shortcoming in his article. Both Israelis and Palestinians feel as if they have been slighted, and I doubt that Stauch, despite his high credentials as a second-year graduate student, is in a position to definitively say which side is wrong.  

Of course, neither am I. And I won’t. To say that one side is more right than the other would be to completely ignore the feelings of an entire group of people. As a human, I cannot, in good faith, delegitimize other humans by taking a side. The fact of the matter is that both Israelis and Palestinians are victims of terrorism.

While I can’t say that one side is wrong, I can respectfully say that Stauch is. It disgusts me how easily he can ignore the Israeli plight. For what reason? Whom does he think he is helping by inciting hate? I argue that the only person he is helping is himself. While he gets another Chronicle publication, two groups of people are still suffering.  

Pointing fingers is not the way to peace. Although Stauch urges students to take up arms for the Palestinian cause, I would ask those same students to lay them down. Supporters of Israel, too, lay down your arms as well. This madness has gone on for too long, and children on each side have died. Let’s pick up candles and occupy buildings not against each other, but for each other. Let’s fight together, for peace.

Kenneth Gould

Trinity ’13