True peace requires fair, respectful leaders

Column by Xeenia Tariq

Lost in the controversy over the difference in pay between the two speakers who are part of a continuing campus and community discussion on the Middle East is the ethical impropriety of the Israeli speaker.

Since resigning as Israel’s Prime Minister after suspicion of corruption, Ehud Olmert has been making the rounds at American colleges and universities to give lectures, including a stop at UK.

Though he has been welcomed by many university administrators and students, his presence has been equally protested.

I encourage UK’s initiative to bring a leader they believed could educate students on a vital issue. I disagree with their decision to allow Olmert to speak.

In the question and answer portion after his lecture, Olmert was asked his opinion about the selection of President Barack Obama as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He jokingly said he had not read any peace treaties Obama had signed, but showered him with praises about being a leader who has been thrust with new responsibility of achieving peace after becoming a Nobel laureate.

I am surprised Olmert even knows what the word “peace” means.

I listened to Olmert over the members of the crowd who interrupted his speaking and he came across as a man so deluded by what he believes that even the U.N. Mission’s report, which found the Israeli government guilty of committing war crimes in Gaza, did not even faze him.

According to the report, published on Sept. 15, “While the Israeli government has sought to portray its operation as essentially a response to rocket attacks in exercise of its right to self-defense, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole.”

When a question was asked about this particular report, Olmert brushed it aside and rejected its findings.
This was an opportunity for the former prime minister to provide justification for his actions, which were responsible for claiming more than 1,400 innocent lives in Gaza. Yet he spoke with an air of arrogance and brushed aside any criticisms.

Israel needs to look deeper and further an answer to the question of why they have not been able to achieve peace for their nation. Is it because they have placed the million habitants of Gaza under siege, preventing them from receiving basic necessities like water, food and medical care? Yes, it is an action that has been termed as collective punishment by the U.N.

A man’s main concern cannot be peace if he has to worry about how to make a living in a discriminatory place, how to take his child past the road blocks for medical care or worry constantly about food shortages.
Israel needs to realize it is losing popularity quickly because of its unjust siege on Gaza and the compromises it refuses to make. Just like Israel has a right to exist, so does a Palestinian state.

I went to Olmert’s lecture to gain some perspective or hear an explanation. Instead, I listened to him as he showed a clear contempt for Palestinians.

I am not blind to the violent acts the other side has made, but I expect better from a country which prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle East.

A Kernel editorial said, “Controversy isn’t a bad thing, but there has to be a purpose behind it.” Olmert’s purpose was to deny every wrong doing.

Next time, UK should do its research and select a speaker who can provide the campus with genuine dialogue and is not currently being indicted in their country for criminal charges.

Peace between Israel and Palestine is not impossible, but it will be difficult for all parties involved.
Compromises must be made, promises must be kept and security must be given to citizens on both sides. This can only be possible with a new state being born along side of Israel: the state of Palestine.

A Nobel Peace recipient once said, “Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims.” That recipient was Obama.

So while he may not have signed any peace treaties since he has taken office, he has certainly given momentum to a process that can finally achieve that ever elusive victory that Israeli and Palestinian mothers have been hoping for: peace in the Middle East.

Xeenia Tariq is a UK alumna. E-mail opinions@kykernel.com.