Retaliation comes at expense of suffering

First, let me say that it is my opinion that those Palestinians and Israelis who insist on perpetuating the familiar chaos in the Middle East are acting like feuding children with war toys who are only outshined in dangerous immaturity by North Korea.

It's the ordinary, everyday people in the Middle East who have my sympathies, and those who peacefully stand up for what they believe who have my respect. I refuse to choose sides between Israel and Palestine, but am all too eager to choose between hawks and doves. [Read article]

On Thursday, everyone who picked up a copy of the Wildcat found out the number of bike thefts on campus has increased by almost 60 percent from last year, according to UAPD's annual campus safety and security report. Already this year there have been 524 reported thefts, with three months still to go in 2003.

With an increase this large, students have to ask if it's worth the risk to ride to campus anymore. They either have to spend their hard-earned money on a state-of-the-art lock the CIA would be envious of or risk coming out of class only to find a lone wheel masquerading as their bike. [Read article]

Given that I am a student of the modern Middle East, nothing seems more natural than to travel to the place that I study. I was prevented from realizing this most basic of goals when Israeli officials invented the idea that I represent a security risk. The reality of the situation is that Israel prevented an American student from studying at a Palestinian university

simply because it could.

Some very misleading statements about my character have graced the pages of the Wildcat in the past month. Invocations of tragic events in the Middle East generate powerful feelings but have nothing to do with my story. My sympathy for the suffering of innocent people everywhere is great, and I was wounded when I read assertions that the deplorable events in the Middle East could justify my deportation. [Read article]