Response to The Campus Conservative

I’m writing in response to the many inaccuracies in Ms. Stroll’s article. First, Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s remarks last week demonstrate his lack of understanding of politics and inexperience as a diplomat. Many Iranian politicians have tried to downplay his amatureish remarks. However, his inexperience does not excuse his horrific remarks but what else are we suppose to expect from the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)? Any student of Middle Eastern politics (or any “journalist” in our case) should not be surprised by his idiotic comments. The Iran-Israel political relationship is as complex as they get. For starters, Israel and Iran were not all always enemies and in fact, Israel provided arms to Iran during the early 1980s. Shimon Peres, Israel’s Prime Minster from 1984-1988 was a supporter of building up the Iranian forces. Israel downplayed Ayathollah Khomeini’s remarks and branded them only as rehetoric and continued to sell arms to him. I recommend Ms. Stroll to do some background research before writing an article about Middle Eastern politics (For beginners, I recommend an article written by Trita Parsi this past weekend in OpenDemocracy: http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-irandemocracy/israel_2974.jsp # ). In her article, Ms. Stroll notes “People who think that Ahamdinejad’s radical remarks represent the views of only a small portion of his constituents and that most Arabs don’t want to end Israel’s existence are deluding themselves…On Friday, over 1 million Iranians gathered in Tehran” to support his remarks. There are three grave errors in her statement. For starters, Iranians ARE NOT Arabs. Stroll’s mistakenly groups people of the Middle East as one. Iranians are Persians Ms. Stroll. Second, according to the BBC, “Tens of thousands of Iranians took part in the rally in Tehran which Iran organises every year on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.” Ms. Stroll, where did you get facts from? Why does the BBC report tens of thousands of people while you report one million people attended the rally? The New York Times dismissed a reporter last year for making up facts in his article. You, my friend, are distorting facts as well. Thirdly, I will use her distorted facts against her. She mistakenly states one million Iranians gathered on Friday for a demonstration to support President Ahamdinejad’s remarks. I am not a math expert, but please correct me if I am wrong: 1 million out of 72 million Iranians represents a little more than ONE PERCENT of the population. But now that we know only tens of thousands demonstrated, we are left with a fraction of a percentage point of the population. A fraction of a percentage point does not represent the Iranian will. I beg you Ms. Stroll, please do your homework next time. Ms. Stroll also states she is not holding her breath for Middle Eastern leaders to condemn Ahamdinejad for his remarks. Luckily for Ms. Stroll she did not have to hold her breath at all. Here are a couple of remarks dismissing President Ahamadinejad’s remarks: -Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat: “Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments. What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map.” -An official at Egypt’s embassy in London: “In principle, we are way beyond this type of political rhetoric that shows the weakness of the Iranian government” Further, many times in her article, Ms. Stroll declares bold statements without justifying them. For example, in the opening paragraph she says Western countries support a peace plan (I am assuming she is referring to the Road Map) that “makes unfair demands on Israel”. What demands? Is she referring to the clause that Israel must stop building new settlements in the occupied territories? Please be more specific. She also makes the claim that “Most Palestinians are not interested in the peace process. They do not want to comprise with Israel; they want to destroy her.” Wow! Are we to take this offensive statement seriously? According to Ms. Stroll, an undergraduate student at the College of Arts and Sciences, Palestinians hate peace. Where does Ms. Stroll get the authority to make such claims? Again we are only left with rehetoric and no substance. Support your claims. To Ms. Strol’s credit, she begins to use satistics to support her argument, but once again the reader is left in the dark. She claims that 53.5% of Palestinians support the second Intifada (uprising) and 49.7% of Palestinians support suicide bombings. From these two figures she concludes the claim that the average Palestinian does not support terroism Israel is a myth. First, she does not define what the objectives of the Intifada are and therefore the reader is lead to believe all suicide bombers are the face of the Intifada. In fact, the Intifada (like the first Intifada in the late 1980s) is a social uprising by Palestinians. This includes boycotts of Israeli goods in the occupied territories. The actions of few suicide bombers should not be confused with the real objectives of the Intifada.

Second, the same poll Ms. Stroll refers to states that 65.2% of Palestinians support a cease-fire between Palestinians and the Israelis and 54% support a two-state solution. If we are going to use satistics and polls to make conclusions, don’t these numbers (65.2% wanting a cease-fire and 54% supporting a two-state solution) demonstrate the Palestinian will for peace and statehood alongside an Israeli state?

The conflict in the Middle East is not as black and white as Ms. Stroll (and many others) like to portray it. Unfortunately, the conflict in the Middle East will continue and many innocent Palestinians and Israelis will die because of a lack of understanding of the complex situations that surrounds this bloody conflict. Instead of making radical and bold statements, Ms. Stroll should dedicate her column to preach understanding of both sides and remind us that the deaths of innocent civilians, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, are not acceptable.

-Ramin Bajoghli ramin@bu.edu 571.236.845 CAS ’06