To the editor,
The Pards for Palestine op-ed piece and their defense of the poster “from the river to the sea” requires a rebuttal. I applaud the students for making a statement, but their excuses for the use of a term that since it was first uttered as a notorious call to arms is unforgivable.
As well, Professor Rachel Goshgarian’s response was most egregious: “… to my understanding…” is sheer gobbledygook. And this from a historian of the Middle East, no less.
What is happening in Gaza is horrific, but understand Hamas can lose battles with Israel 1,000 times, but Israel can lose only once. Have any of the sympathizers examined the Hamas manifesto before taking an unflinching position? Seems not. This phrase in question is repeated hundreds of times in both Palestinian and Hamas propaganda. On Nov. 11, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, at his meeting in Saudi Arabia, said unequivocally that “the only solution for this conflict is the resistance continuing against the Israeli oppression until the establishment of the Palestinian state from the river to the sea.” Can this be made any clearer?
Student Miles Asher Dorai-Raj said that he did not know that the phrase was used by Hamas prior to the OnePard report. I also found this offputting. Forgiving the fact that he is a young student, he should nonetheless understand better and do his homework before making a commitment to a public notice. As Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate to the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
And then there is Mariama Bah ’24, an organizer. Liberation, you say. Gaza is run by a terrorist organization that would cut off your head if you were Jewish while it keeps their citizens in mortal peril. And you are speaking about “understanding.”
The Palestinians have had myriad opportunities to make a way forward as well as to make Gaza a fertile landmark to peace and prosperity. But instead, they took Qatari (and Iranian) monies and dug underground cities to use as military launching pads. Please point Dorai-Raj and Mariama Bah — as well as Professor Goshgarian — to a quote by Abba Eban (Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister) after the Geneva Peace Conference in 1973: “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
Richard S. Koplin ’64
Alum • Nov 17, 2023 at 5:24 pm
Thank for you voicing your very needed thoughts about this problematic group. As a young alum I am pleased that generations of Laf alums realize what is happening and aren’t just going to sit silent and watch. As stated in my previously comment on the original post—from the river to the sea does not have alternative interpretations. It deviates from the two state framework that is endorsed by the US for decades and is synonymous with calling for the dismantling of the sole Jewish state. I appreciate your letter! Thanks!
Alum '18 • Nov 17, 2023 at 5:01 pm
I am pretty sure a Harvard trained Middle Eastern Scholar has a better understanding of the conflict than an ophthalmologist, so I will rely on her assessment. This is also full of vaguely concealed xenophobia and a desperate attempt by someone whose generation is seeing the narrative slip away as the young educate themselves on the conflict.
To address specific points here that sounds like they were freshly gleaned from Fox News’ coverage of the conflict. The vast majority of Muslim and Arab nations support the two-state solution (in fact its something like 40-50 as opposed to one, Iran, that opposes it). Netanyahu, however, after cheering the assassination of Israeli PM Rabin has made it his life’s mission to not let that happen. Using Iran to represent the entire Arab and Muslim world is disingenuous. Also, it is indicative of Israel’s racist nature to believe that if the roles were reversed and there was a singular Palestinian state with a large Jewish population, they would be subjected to the treatment Palestinians are subjected to. Equality is what’s demanded by Palestinians, not the superiority Israelis enjoy over them.
No, Gaza never had a chance to become the Dubai of the Mediterranean because its people live under active occupation being surrounded by air, land and sea by Israel. They are also cut off from the West Bank, unlike Dubai’s connection to the rest of the UAE and Arabian peninsula. Would Tel Aviv thrive if it was sliced off from Israel and blockaded on all sides? Would Hong Kong and Singapore survive without trade links?
Richard, this is a generational reckoning, and no amount of name calling, gaslighting, Islamophobia and Arab hate will stop it. A two-state solution, with peace and dignity for minorities is the only way forward. Time for framing the Palestinian struggle as terrorism and genocidal has long gone.
Richard Koplin • Nov 21, 2023 at 9:22 am
So, Alum ’18, you can’t or won’t think for your self? Did you not read this? Are you an independent thinker? That’s why you came to Lafayette (I hope).
On November 11, 2023, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, at his meeting in Saudi Arabia, said unequivocally that “the only solution for this conflict is the resistance continuing against the Israeli oppression until the establishment of the Palestinian state from the river to the sea.”
Did you simply wish this away?
Professor Goshgarian missed an opportunity to be forthright and I can’t speak for her thought process but it has nothing to do with her academic bona fides. She made a mistake.
Now let’s get down to the bottom line. Your last paragraph almost reaches an entry point to intelligent discussion: but you dacker. If you were accusing me of the litany of smoke bombs then you missed the mark. I did nothing in my missive but state the facts. So, your pedantry is not instructive. What is (or are) the solutions? Stop wallowing in your biases (Hamas not a terrorist organization? Generational gap?) and take a leadership role. Bring to the campus constructive momentun. Solutions! Time is wasting, Alum ’18.
END THE GENOCIDE • Nov 24, 2023 at 11:29 pm
“On November 11, 2023, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, at his meeting in Saudi Arabia, said unequivocally that “the only solution for this conflict is the resistance continuing against the Israeli oppression until the establishment of the Palestinian state from the river to the sea.””
Yeah buddy, the Iranian is the one you quote, not ANY PALESTINIAN AT ALL. That’s like King Charles deciding that calls for Land Back in America is suddenly genocidal to white Americans. You see how it’s stupid to quote politicians who are not from the involved countries, especially knowing full well that Iran doesn’t even represent the consensus of most Middle Eastern countries?
When making your argument, next time quote people who are actually involved in the conflict, and perhaps understand that, like the IRA and the Irish populace are separate, so are the Palestinian people separate from Hamas. Any person with an ounce of compassion in their heart can condemn the October 7th attack while being HORRIFIED at the genocide in Gaza and know that the only way forward for Palestinians is an end to Israeli occupation and liberation of GLOBALLY RECOGNIZED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES.
The solution you so desperately want us to come up with is what we are already saying: end the genocide of innocent civilians. Return political power over Palestinian land back to Palestinian people. End the use of Israeli military courts in civil or even criminal cases in Palestine. Acknowledge the murders. Acknowledge the war crimes. Say the name of every single child who paid the ultimate price for a crime they did not commit. Say their names. All 5,300+ of them. How long will it take you to read their names? How long will it take you to mourn their deaths, to say “this should never have happened?”
Not a single statement there calls for violence, genocide, expulsion, any of the crimes already being committed against Palestinian people.
Lastly, as other students have hopefully pointed out, the currently recognized Palestinian territories are the West Bank, which is bordered by the Jordan River, and the Gaza Strip, which is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea. Surely now you can understand why people use the phrase as it was coined NOT by Hamas but by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, referring to the liberation of occupied land, and calling for liberation does not equate to calling for genocide (or did you think Africans and Asians calling for a decolonization of their countries meant they wanted to kill all Europeans?).
“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political, I must listen to the birds and in order to hear the birds the warplanes must be silent” – Marwan Makhoul
concerned student • Nov 17, 2023 at 3:57 pm
actively naming a student in this already blatantly biased piece (with some misattributed quotes, might i add) is irresponsible and a misuse of power. i would argue that “israel” can fight back as much it wants, given the billions of dollars in weapons they receive from the US, whereas if Hamas or Palestinian citizens lose even once they will be completely wiped out by a genocidal ethnostate. next time you write a letter to the editor, i would recommend having someone fact check both your information and the quotes you use. google is free. use it.
Alum • Nov 17, 2023 at 5:35 pm
You are so unbelievably misinformed. I think you should take your own advice and hit the books!
casey • Nov 17, 2023 at 11:44 pm
Was this supposed to be a “gotcha” of some sort? “Right backatcha” is typically not accepted as a rebuttal in academic circles.
Jeff R • Nov 17, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Well said Richard, and it’s about time there was a response published addressing the tragic situation and Lafayette College’s response.
Any terrorist group that praises with glee its killers of little children and beheading of old women, and promises to continue repeatedly such acts of sheer barbarism into the future, in order to annihilate a sovereign nation, deserves only the death it has brought upon countless other innocents on both sides of the conflict and its own total destruction.
concerned student • Nov 17, 2023 at 4:06 pm
i think to might need to check your sources…. “israel” is the one blatantly calling for the genocidal destruction of palestine (the only actual sovereign state of the two of them) and they’ve killed more innocents than hamas ever has. i would recommend looking at Al Jazeera or other news sources that actually tell the truth instead of misrepresenting what “israel” has been doing.
pro-palestine student • Nov 17, 2023 at 3:45 pm
the power trip as a last ditch effort to stay relevant when you graduated in ‘64 is actually crazy
Alum • Nov 17, 2023 at 5:37 pm
Some people use their degrees to think critically. Clearly someone has been spending too much time studying at the foot of Prof Goshgarian
Current Junior • Dec 30, 2023 at 4:15 pm
Professor Goshgarian has a degree in Middle Eastern studies. Richard Koplin is an opthamologist. Saying that he’s using his degree to think critically is massively misrepresenting a man who misattributed a quote, and also misquoted someone.
Lu • Nov 17, 2023 at 1:49 pm
What a trite piece of writing, to refuse to even remotely engage with the Palestinian perspective beyond a cursory “the situation is bad!” comment. Mind you, choosing rather to centre the issue around the slogans used for supporting the Palestinian cause (and gotcha!-ing over the politics of a Palestinian populace that has proven to welcome Jewish support for liberation with open arms) betrays any goodwill you could hope to make with a comment that does the bare minimum of acknowledging Palestinian suffering.
“Understand Hamas can lose battles with Israel 1,000 times, but Israel can lose only once.” Do these 1,000 battles come out of thin air, with Hamas soldiers spawning out of some endless aether, fuelled only by a baseless hatred against the Israeli populace? Hamas’ attack on 10/7 was Israel feeling less than a tenth of the meaningless cruelty and suffering it imports upon the Palestinian people, explained through the only terms Israel has proven capable of understanding – violence and bloodshed. In the end of your third paragraph, you cite Raisi’s speech that states that the only solution for the conflict is continued resistance against Israeli oppression. Is this not true? Is this not justified? Hamas is an organisation formed of the angered, the disillusioned, and the orphans of Palestine seeking retaliation against a settler colony, and as it stands, it is Palestine’s only meaningful defense against the long-term extermination of them as a populace. Of course they’re gonna fight for the freedom of Palestine, do you fucking hear yourself?
When Holocaust survivors and Holocaust historians can reach a consensus that Israel’s activity in Palestine is a mounting genocide, it is a moral obligation of anyone aware of the situation to stand with the oppressed. Education is important, but not moreso than what your eyes and ears tell you – and let me tell you, people have been seeing enough to stand against the settler state of Israel to such an extent that not only do they believe that Palestine shouldn’t have to leave the fate of its people to the whims of Israel (shocker!!) but that they also disagree with Israel’s existence in and of itself. If you were Palestinian, wouldn’t you? If you were seeing the flimsy propaganda from Israel be debunked as soon as it gets churned out day-in and day-out for two months in an attempt to manufacture consent for the death of the Palestinian populace, wouldn’t you????
What a shameful letter. How poorly this reflects on Lafayette’s principles, and what the school stands for. To wring hands in such a way to villainize any activism in the name of the Palestinian cause is sickening, and I hope to God the author of this letter grows a brain, a heart and a conscience one day. But as long as Zionism entails cheerleading bottomless depravity in the name of a religious fairytale, that day will likely not be today, tomorrow, or any other day. Truly, truly disappointing.
RS Koplin • Nov 20, 2023 at 3:26 pm
A bit long winded are we Lu. And failing to think through your bias and facts. So, instead of picking apiece your over -ripe, sophomoric jibberish, let’s look at one simple piece of prejudicial nonense at the heart of the matter.
You failed to finnish Raisi’s quote “… until the establishment of the Palestinian state from the river to the sea.” Very convenient. Now we know who you really are. So, as I run through the theme in my replies. Unwind yourself and consider Solutions otherwise this is a Sisyphean challenge and the only thing that’s guaranteed is that many more innocent people will continue to die.
Concerned Student • Nov 17, 2023 at 1:08 pm
I noticed there was a misquote used in this piece; Abba Enan actually said “The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Did you also forget your homework on the origins of phrases?
Meghana • Nov 17, 2023 at 1:01 pm
This quote was incorrectly sourced, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister used the word “Arab” instead of “Palestinians”, and it was later recycled by somebody else, although I can understand the convenience in misconstruing the quote to fit an agenda. (I wonder what other quotes you use in this piece follow the same pattern.) Next time, please don’t call for the end of antisemitism when you are referencing blatantly xenophobic comments as nonpartisan quotes. Also it would be great if you could see the irony in your dismission of a “historian of the Middle East”. Thank you!
RS Koplin • Nov 20, 2023 at 3:09 pm
It was well known that Eban re-used the comment to fit the situation: ““The Palestinians never miss an opportunity… to miss an opportunity – or to use a more common idiom, to shoot themselves in the foot – the late Abba Eban quipped in his day.” (From JPost: KHALED ABU TOAMEH: JULY 16, 2019 18:34).
And your thoughless ire is barely cloaked as you extrapoate by not so subtly accusing me of making up others: And so you do fit Alvin Toffler’s adage. Sad for you. Focus on the Solution(s) and then you might gain the right to the bully pulpit.