By Nicolai Brown

Iowa State Daily columnist

The other day I was walking through Campustown when a newspaper image caught my eye. On the other side of the news laid a picture of a bloodied, pregnant Israeli woman who had been staying at the Red Sea Hotel in Taba, Egypt when it was bombed by an undetermined group.

Much like the unborn fetus inside the woman, the health and future of the Israeli and Palestinian people laid in doubt. What both groups don’t seem to realize is that their actions aren’t leading to safety or independence, but rather to mutual self-destruction.

We must not allow ourselves to take sides with either the Israelis or Palestinians in this matter, because the opposition mentality is what perpetuates the cycle of violence. By taking a neutral stance, we can bypass the runaway emotion felt by many of those directly involved and therefore serve as a legitimate and calm mediator between two groups stained by unspeakable horror.

However, in our effort to bring peace, we must have a clear understanding of the situation we seek to improve. We can’t afford to pretend that either the Israelis or Palestinians are wholly innocent. They’re not.

While Palestinians do live under the brutal occupation of the Israeli military, suicide bombings must not be glossed over or viewed as leading to Palestinian liberation. Rather, we must view these suicide bombings for what they are: repugnant and shameful attacks that kill innocent people.

There is no honor or integrity in killing children. When a suicide bomber walks into an Israeli cafe, hoping to spark Palestinian “liberation,” the opposite is accomplished. The attacker detonates his or her bomb, and gas expands from the explosion at a speed of many thousands of feet per second.

The bomber is instantly ripped in half (or worse), and whoever isn’t decimated by the shockwave then faces deadly shrapnel, fire and building structure collapse. How would you feel if a loved one was reduced from a smiling human being to a pile of scattered body parts? Think hard about what that might feel like.

Such attacks, no doubt, give many Israelis the impression that Palestinians are more animal than human. This dehumanizing view is then used to justify savage violence employed not only against members of Hamas but also against innocent Palestinians. You can guess where this is going. After forcing Palestinians into homelessness and claiming their homes and neighborhoods for Israel, the Israeli military swoops in to bomb suspected (and not always proven) Hamas members and whoever else happens to be nearby.

Israeli bombs tear through buildings, cutting apart men, women and children like pieces of paper. Israeli troops gun down unarmed, rock-throwing Palestinian kids — pumping bullet streams into young human flesh, destroying organs and breaking bones.

The crime? Throwing rocks. Try to imagine what it might feel like to have a loved one murdered in cold blood or to return home to find your family incinerated in a pile of rubble with the smell of burning flesh still hanging in the air. Go ahead, picture it.

There is no “side” for us to take in this matter other than peace. The Israelis and Palestinians both have a right to defend themselves, but they must understand that their methods only produce more hate and violence.

Therein lies the irony of the conflict: By seeking to protect themselves, they effectively sow their own seeds of destruction.

They live in a symbiotic relationship — both need each other in this double-suicide arrangement.

The Israeli government can and will conscript its citizens into military service for as long as it has to. Groups like Hamas can and will recruit new members for as long as they have to. Neither entity, nor their respective goals, can be effectively opposed through violent means.

There will always be another generation — and some of the young are taught from even before birth on which side of the line they stand.