I’m sure most of you have heard of the tension in the Middle East. “Which tension?” you ask. Because, in the first place there’s always some kind of tension in the Middle East, and furthermore, there have been two hot spots in recent weeks.

My focus is the situation in Israel. It’s the same old story:

-Hamas/Hezbollah/Islamic Jihad attacks Israeli civilians.

-Israeli military initiates smack-down in retaliation.

-United Nations/U.S government/Palestinians put pressure on Israel to stop the attacks.

-Israel stops attacks and sternly requests Arafat to bring terrorists to justice.

We’ve seen this scenario so many times, it’s doubtful that anyone would be surprised to hear the above sequence in the news over a few days. But it’s never stopped people from coming out to denounce Israel and its government for being evil, unjust and downright bloodthirsty. Which, to me begs the question, “what the heck is going on here?”

What I don’t understand is how anyone can possibly lay all the blame at the feet of the Israelis and not just be pulling my leg. It has become obvious that this violence only occurs in response to Islamic fundamentalist activity in Israel. It is also clear that Yasser Arafat either cannot and/or will not take any action to shut down terrorism performed in the name of the Palestinian nation. So how can anyone feel justified in saying Israelis should not retaliate, essentially giving up the right to defend themselves.

To those who might say that the attacks are a response to Israeli aggression, I say that’s bogus. In the past, fundamentalist groups had made the refusal of Israel to give some land to the Palestinians as their excuse for attacking Jews. But even after Israel has given Palestinians some territory, and has actively been in negotiation for the rest of it, they are still under attack.

This of course comes from the fact that a few hard-line Muslim sects believe that since Jerusalem is a holy place in the religion of Islam, the Jews should not live there. And they will continue to attack Israelis as long as that is the case. The only solution to this is for the Palestinian and/or other authorities to take control and crush these terrorist activities. If they can’t (or won’t), then it is patently unfair to condemn the Israelis for taking matters into their own hands.

It is abundantly clear that the attacks on Israel are about more than just the desire to give the Palestinian people a place to live. Even if that was the reason, terrorism is never an acceptable method of negotiation.

Nevertheless, these are attacks against the very existence of a people, so they have the right to use any and every means at their disposal to ensure that their aggressors fail. And if the Israeli government has gone overboard at times in it’s retaliation, that is to be expected, because the passion to protect one’s existence will often result in that. We certainly have to condemn such unmeasured overreaction, but we must not ignore the root of the problem. If there are no terrorist attacks, there’s no retaliation, and the peace process continues.

It’s time for us all to dispense with blind pacifism and stop coddling these shameless acts of religious intolerance. The fundamentalist perpetrators are obviously a minority in the Muslim world, and they do not deserve any sympathy whatsoever. When the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world decide to accept the presence of the Jews living in their midst, it will become clear in their words and actions.

Putting pressure on the Israeli government to stop bombing attacks is purely cosmetic, and does absolutely nothing to prevent the whole cycle from starting up again. It took the Sept. 11 attacks for the U.S government and the rest of our allies to develop the current “tough on terrorism” approach, and recognize that Mr. Arafat’s actions (or lack thereof) have played a large part in the current mess. And let’s not forget that Osama bin Laden and his organization had used the current American presence in Saudi Arabia (also a Muslim holy place) as their excuse for their activities. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

I think it is now clear that the world cannot afford to call for peace without dealing with the root causes of the turmoil. As long as that keeps happening, the negotiations will always break down. If I were Ariel Sharon, I would not be negotiating with Arafat while his cronies are blowing up civilian buses and hosing them down with machine-gun fire. Let’s not be naive about this – the violence will not go away until we take care of the sources.

Emeka Anyanwu is a senior in electrical engineering from Ames.