‘Wars end when one side gives up’

Israelis and Palestinians are at war, and peace will never be achieved until the Palestinians accept the existence of a Jewish state in Israel, the head of a Middle East studies group said Tuesday.

Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum and columnist for the New York Sun and The Jerusalem Post, spoke at VCU’s newly renovated Commons Theater to an audience of about 150 people. Supporters of a Safe Israel sponsored the lecture.

“What is taking place between the Israelis and Palestinians must be described as a war,” Pipes said.

During his talk, he repeatedly stressed that Palestinians must cease trying to destroy Israel in the war.

“The Israeli war goal is to win … Arab acceptance,” Pipes said. “The Palestinian goal is to destroy the Jewish state.

“I wish I could tell you that there was a compromise, but there’s not. We must acknowledge that one side’s going to win, and one side’s going to lose. Wars end when one side gives up.”

Furthermore, Palestinians cannot progress while the fighting continues, Pipes said.

“A skilled and dignified people cannot modernize, cannot live the good life as long as they are haunted by this obsession with destroying Israel,” he said.

“Getting the Palestinians to give up their dream of destroying Israel is something that will benefit both sides.”
Pipes said past attempts at diplomacy have been at best insignificant and at worst harmful.

“First, diplomacy in a time of war cannot work,” he said. “Diplomacy can only work when the Palestinians give up their anti-Zionist ambitions.”
This, Pipes said, will not happen soon.

“It is up to the Palestinians to prove they accept Israel … I expect this will take decades,” he said.

Until then, Pipes said the United States should not attempt diplomacy with Palestinians, recognize Palestine as a state or offer Palestinians financial aid.

Academic Campus SGA President Zmarak Khan asked Pipes what responsibility Israel has in the conflict.

Pipes answered by saying that though “Israelis are not angels,” Palestinians are responsible for most of the problems.

“When democracy is at war with tyranny, you can be pretty sure that tyranny is responsible for 90-plus percent of the problems.”

Responding to another audience member’s question, Pipes said Israel takes a defensive position in the fighting, and therefore Palestinian attacks are not justified as Israeli attacks are.

“The people who are trying to destroy another state (and) exterminate its population are not on the same level as the people trying to defend it,” he said.

CONTROVERSY AT VCU

Pipes’ talks have brought protests at other college campuses, but the atmosphere at his VCU lecture was relatively calm.

The Daily Californian, the student newspaper of University of California-Berkeley, reported that at Pipes’ February 10 speech at Berkeley some protesters loudly booed him and called him a racist.

Police escorted some protesters out of the lecture, the newspaper reported.

Only one audience member at Pipes’ Monday talk at VCU spoke out against him without having been called on to ask a question.

When Pipes said he was nominated to the U.S. Institute for Peace, the man yelled, “Illegally! Without Senate approval!” several times, referring to President Bush’s appointment of Pipes while the U.S. Senate was not in session. Other audience members told the protester to be quiet as he left.

Nonetheless, Pipes’ VCU visit sparked some controversy even before he arrived.

An e-mail sent through the College of Humanities and Sciences faculty mailing list implored Pipes supporters to arrive at the lecture early to fill seats.

“THIS IS OPEN SEATING AND WE HAVE NO CROWD CONTROL- IN ORDER TO LIMIT ANTI-ISRAEL AUDIENCE MEMBERS- WE NEED SUPPORTERS TO COME EARLY!!” the e-mail stated.

College of Humanities and Sciences Dean Stephen Gottfredson’s office later sent out an e-mail decrying the statement, adding that the message should have been screened before being sent through the mailing list.

“The announcement … contained inappropriate and potentially inflammatory rhetoric that has offended some members of our community,” Gottfredson’s e-mail said.

In addition, the Academic Campus SGA passed a resolution Monday condemning Pipes for bringing “an atmosphere of distrust and fear” to the university. With one senator abstaining from voting, the resolution passed unanimously.

” … Mr. Pipes’ presence at VCU creates open hostility and division among an otherwise peacable and tolerant campus,” the resolution stated.

SGA Sen. Ali Faruk, who also serves as secretary of the Muslim Students’ Association, said the resolution was necessary.

“It affirms his right to free speech but condemns his hate speech,” Faruk said. “We felt that since we are a very diverse campus, it was something the SGA had to pass.”

Caty Hill, Supporters of a Safe Israel’s secretary, said the resolution showed her that pro-Israel students are needed in student government.
Hill said her group requested $5,000 for the event from the SGA and received only $1,000. She said she suspects Pipes’ political views played a part in the SGA’s decision not to appropriate the requested amount.

“It definitely makes a point to us that we need some people on (the SGA),” she said. “It definitely is harder when you have people on there who vote against you because of your political standpoint.

THE AUDIENCE REACTS

As with nearly all events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, audience reaction was sharply divided.

Boris Perelman, a graduate physiology student, commended Pipes for his speech.

“He’s an excellent orator,” Perelman said. “He reacts very well to many different types of questions. I very much liked his views and opinions.”
Others said Pipes didn’t take the issues seriously.

“His philosophies were basically propaganda,” said Mariam Lodin, a junior political-science major who minors in religious studies. “He was very one-sided.”

Lodin said Pipes downplayed the Palestinians’ plight and unfairly portrayed Israelis as always being victims in the conflict.

Bilal Aslam, a first-year mechanical-engineering major, said Pipes’ solution to the conflict is unrealistic.

“On one plane, the stuff he said made sense … But in a case like this, it’s not feasible,” Aslam said.

“If he were in the place of the Palestinians, he wouldn’t act the way he’s telling them to act.”

Daniel Pipes is director and co-founder of the Middle East Forum and a boardmember of the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is a columnist for the New York Sun and The Jerusalem Post.