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Editor: 

If the Students for Justice in Palestine wish to start a movement to end the most vicious racism seen in the Middle East, rather than demanding the university divest from Israel they should call for an end to our government’s funding of the Palestinian Authority. 

After all, Yassir Arafat and his morally bankrupt supporters refused Barak’s most reasoned proposal for a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem, advocating instead violence in the guise of an “Intifada” whose real aim is nothing short of forcing all the Jews out of the Middle East. To any fair observer, if this were not true, why did Arafat refuse Barak’s terms ... indeed what more could Barak have offered? 

Instead, our government continues to send money to the real genesis of ethnic hate, Arafat and his authoritarian authority. I mean what could be a more blatant manifestation of “apartheid” than the indiscriminate blowing up of Israelis, simply because they are Jews? Arafat not only knows who plans this, but condones their activity by giving them the freedom sans even the smallest iota of criticism to continue their barbarically murderous acts of ethnic, religious and political bigotry.  

In sum, I hope those who truly oppose hate as the Students for Justice in Palestine say they do will join me in calling for an end to all support to Arafat and his thugs. No one is a bigger obstacle to a Palestinian homeland than its chief supporter, the Palestinian Authority. 

Daniel C. Spitzer, Ph.D. 

Berkeley