Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Nov. 15, 1996, edition 1 / Page 4
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4 FAST FACTS Deadly crash in India's air: Two airlines collided in Mid- Air over India. The crash killed 351, including two Americans. The death toll was the 3rd highest in aviation historu. The crasg occured when a Saudi Arabian jumbo jet collided shortly after take-off with a Kazak Airlines plane approach ing the New Delhi Airport. U. N. calls for an end of Cuba embargo: The U. N General Assembly for the fifth year in a row called for an end to the three-year-old U. S. trade embargo against Cuba by the biggest majority yet. Pope condemns gap between rich and poor: Pope John Paul II told a U. N. sponsored World Food Summit on Wednesday that it was "intolerable" that some people lived in opulence while others starved. Peace in the Middle East? LAUREN GILL world editor The struggle between the Arabs and the Jews began in the 600's. Almost 1400 years later, the war is still on. Sunday morning, it appeared that nego tiations were close, that an almost endless struggle would come to an end. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to discuss the Hebron situa tion, but Netanyahu said that the delaying tactics of the Palestinians endangered the entire Israeli redeployment. Only 400 Jewish settlers live among 100,000 Palestinians on Hebron's West Bank. Palestinian officials are looking to seal an accord with Israeli troops which would hand over 80% of the town to Palestinian police. Many Jewish settlers living in Student Voices: Roy Jessup Alit Bedik senior first-year The Guilfordian Growing pains in the Middle East J. KELLY DAVIS Back page editor "We are still swimming in a sea of con fusion... looking for a way out," said the grandson of Yitzhak Rabin as reported by r H Press. "Our world ■■ M has changed. We are fIHP m §l no longer the same ' ** Jy family, the same m people." It's been exactly k one year and eleven days since the assas- .. . . sination of Israeli Mohammed Prime Minister Abu-Nimer Yitzhak Rabin. The West has never seen situations in the Middle East as good, and today we seem to think things are actually very bad. Tension, both internal and external, for the countries of this region have been rising steadily. Con flict has renewed between the United States and Iraq, the Kurdish people are still facing difficulties, the monarchy in Saudi Arabia is facing stronger threats than ever before, and the peace process in Israel has been stag nant if not regressed. On top of all this, the Hebron fear a Palestinian massacre if an agreement is made. According to Palestinian negotiator Hassan Asfour, Netanyahu only offered a verbal com mitment to implementing the deals. Both the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president have recently expressed hope of clinching a deal. But, during a Middle East economic conference held on Tuesday, Palestinians lashed out at Israel, accusing its right-wing government of choking their economy and hindering regional alliance. Many students at Guilford are frustrated about the situation in the Middle East, and most are fairly uninformed. Senior Nat Gray, when asked about the recent occurrences in the Middle East replied, "Sounds terribly frightening, but I feel too uninformed to say anything." First-year Marc Bernstein commented that, "The phone call was typical. I wasn't sur- world United States govern ment still fails to clarify its role in these situations. "You can't find a square mile on the world that isn't in some kind of turmoil," says Sepehr Moshtael. Moshtael is a 21-year old Greensboro resi dent whose family fled Tehran, Iran in 1978 just before the Ayatol- lah Khomeini's Islamic revolution. He points to developments in science and technology as well as population growth as a way to understand today's problems. "We're going through growing pains," added Moshtael. He feels that these prob lems should be eventually worked out. In Saudi Arabia, where our military bases dictate much of our foreign policy, there is growing dissatisfaction with the monarchy. Last week the military consolidated its forces, that were deployed in Dhahran and Riyadh, in A 1 Khaij. This move was in re action to security problems, which include two bombings, around the bases over the past year. prised to hear that nothing had been resolved. They've tried time and time again to settle things. They were going to settle everything while Yitzhak Rabin was alive, but after he was assassinated last year by an Israeli Jew who opposed his peace efforts, people lost hope. Israel lost a lot of security. Rabin was considered Israel's great hope. They thought that he would be the one to resolve the fight ing that had been with since Israel has been Israel." Wednesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Min ister Benjamin Netanyuha cancelled a trip to the United States to further negotiate with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. This re cent event has many Israelis and Palestinians curious about how soon peace will be achieved. An Israeli official who requested anonymity said to the Associated Press, "It's possible, but it's also possible it will happen tomorrow." November 15,1996 Ambt* Sudan r\ Although the Saudi monarchy supports the U.S. presence, frustra tions with the monar chy continue to spread. Unlike the revolution that occurred over fif teen years ago in Iran, this dissent is not en tirely fueled by reli gious dogma. Many of the people are pointing towards economic problems as creating a need for change. Over the past 64 years the monarchy has satiated the Saudi people with governmental subsidies. Recently, the government has been cutting back on these subsidies. According to The New York Times, the per capita annual in come has dropped by nearly two-thirds over the past 15 years. So, most of the blame lies with the royal family. They are accused of either encour aging infidels to occupy space on the Ara bian peninsula, or financial mismanagement leading to the poverty of many Saudi people. The situation in Israel, although differ ent from the other two involving U.S. mili tary bases, is similar because the U.S. gov ernment —through non-action—has per petuated problems that many had hoped would be averted. "Unfortunately, not many things have changed," says Mohammed Abu-Nimer about the peace process in Israel. Abu-Nimer cited several incidents that occurred over the past year. The West Bank and the Gaza strip were closed in February and have only recently been completely re opened. This means that no Palestinians were able to leave the regions—even to go to their jobs in Israel. No items were to en ter or leave the regions. In effect they were completely isolated from the rest of the world. This caused a great deal of economic decline and growing frustrations among Palestinians about their place in the Middle East. Abu-Nimer also said that for the first time since 1993, there were clear public clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. This clash led to the deaths of 5 Palestin ians, 15 Israelis, and caused hundreds of injuries. "One thing positive that did happen was for [the] first time since 1923," says Abu- Nimer, "Israeli right wing leader shook [the] hand of a Palestinian leader." According to Bill Schmickle, a political science professor with expertise in interna tional politics, this is a very positive sign. "In our history, we've found that com promise with the enemy is best obtained by more conservative leaders," he stated The hope of many people is that Netanyahu will be able to move to a more moderate position and forge some type of peace in the region. "What success he obtains will probably be on firmer ground than by other, more lib eral leaders." added Schmickle.
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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