A Call to Action: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

KALAMAZOO, Mich.--Dr. Jeff Halper, anthropologist and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, called for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Israeli policy of Palestinian house demolition during a lecture he gave at WMU on Thursday.

"I want to show you what's happening to the people," Halper said, speaking of the house demolitions. "My basic feeling is that this is not fair."

Entitled, "An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel," the lecture was held as part of the Kalamazoo Peace Center's Peace Week. The Kalamazoo Women in Black and the Western Michigan University Center for the Study of Ethics in Society also sponsored it.

Halper, an Israeli- American who moved to Israel in 1973, and now works there as the coordinating director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, declared that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a "symmetrical conflict." 

Israel is the 4th largest nuclear power, according to Halper, and has the power to end the dispute, but hasn't done so because the Israeli government doesn't want to. He said the basic problem is the Israeli government's viewpoint that "The Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the Jewish people; Arabs reside in 'our country' by sufferance and not by right."

Halper and other members of the ICAHD work to bring Israelis and Palestinians together in opposition to this viewpoint. The group rebuilds homes demolished by Israeli authorities, and members will place themselves in front of houses about to be destroyed by bulldozers in efforts to prevent demolition. Palestinian homes are often destroyed because they are built on land zoned for other uses. 

However, as Halper described, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to get building permits for homes. Palestinians were granted 18 last year. To humanize the problem, Halper told the story of the Shawamreh family, whose house has been destroyed a total of four times. "Why isn't this international outrage?" he asked the audience. The wall being built to separate Palestinians into their own areas was also a point of discussion in the speech. 

A Q&A followed the lecture. Five or six individuals debated with Halper about whether or not Israel was truly to blame in the issue. Halper and a young Israeli man were nearly in a shouting match at one point, arguing about Israel's guilt in the matter. However, the majority of the audience gave Halper a standing ovation at the conclusion of the Q&A. 

One audience member, Lois Dickason, a member of the Kalamazoo Women in Black, thought he was one of the best speakers she'd heard on the subject. The audience of nearly 140 stayed through the entire speech, almost filling the 180 seats to capacity. Many members also stayed for the books signing and refreshments offered afterward in the Fetzer Center's lobby. 

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Just Your Typical College Student

KALAMAZOO, Mich.--Leeor Schweitzer looks like your average Kalamazoo College student. The sophomore dresses the part, wearing a faded brown Pink Floyd T-shirt, light grey jeans, and even a Kalamazoo College lanyard that holds his Kalamazoo identification card. His reddish-brown beard and hair, fair skin, and clean accent don't mark him as foreign. You'd never suspect that this young man is an immigrant.

But Schweitzer was born in Israel on September 29, 1988. His father is a research biologist who completed his doctorate in Israel but finished his post-doctorate in the U.S. The Schweitzer family, including Leeor and his older brother, Eran, relocated to Portland, Ore., in 1996, have no initial problems with the immigration process. Leeor was eight, and is now totally Americanized.

Schweitzer, 20, seems to be the example of the ideal immigrant. Around Kalamazoo College's campus, he's known as the first-year who overloaded, taking four classes winter quarter - and doing so successfully. He's involved in more student organizations than the average student, including EnvOrg, the Campus Energy Group, and the college's taiko drumming group. Schweitzer is also president of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy group, and was a LandSea leader this fall. However, he and his family have had their own struggles with American immigration standards and policies after the initial process of immigration.

Asked about these standards and policies, he responds, "I think they suck." In his opinion, many immigration policies are superfluous. "The U.S. is really stringent," he says. "The amount of unnecessary paperwork is amazing."

For Schweitzer, some immigration procedures are even insulting. He tells a story about his brother Eran's return from study abroad in Costa Rica. Eran had infected mosquito bites when he returned, and had a doctor's note noting this. But U.S. immigration officers quarantined him at the airport, saying the marks looked like "cigarette burns" and talking about him as if he wasn't in the room.

Schweitzer says that's the worst part, being treated almost subhuman. It's as if being an immigirant implies a lack of understanding. He hadn't been able to obtain work-study until this year because of his immigrant status. Likewise, his mother hadn't been able to work until this year for the same reason. But he and his family are overcoming these obstacles, and look forward to a time when other immigrants will not have to undergo what he's been through.

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Palestinian Shooting Article Analysis

This particular hard news article appeared in the New York Times on October 17, 2008. A link can be found here. 

The first sentence is a summary lede, providing the who, what, when, and where. Respectively, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in a fight in the West Bank on Thursday the 16th. In continuation of the what and when, the reader also learns that two other men were killed in the same way on previous days. In the very next sentence, the reader learns the reason why - namely, that all the men were holding  firebombs.The lede in this case effectively replaces the nut graf, a commonality in short articles.

The second paragraph elaborates on the situation, discussing what's been occuring in the West Bank to result in these events. The source of an unnamed Israeli Army spokeswoman is used to verify the information. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian official, is used to provide the other point of view in the situation, partially providing an A-B structure. 

The rest of the article mixes different structures. The fourth paragraph tells the narrative chronology of what happened, while the next three paragraphs provide background on what happened and why to the other two Palestinian men. There is no kicker quote.

Another source, Ehud Barak, is used in the eight paragraph to provide more perspective on the Israeli point of view. The ninth paragraph provides more background. As for the article's ending, it is a combination of the fizzle-out and look-ahead endings. The article seems to abruptly end, but it still provides perspective on what may happen next in the area. 

Police Chief Resignation Article Analysis

This hard news article appeared in the October 3, 2008 issue of the New York Times. Here's a link.

It begins with a summary lede, giving the who, what, where, when, and why: respectively, the police chief of London who resigned in London, England on Thursday, pushed out of office by the mayor.

 

The killer quote appears in the next paragraph, direct from Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. It gives the reader his reasoning for resigning, and was used because it's important to get quotes and opinions directly from the person whom the article concerns. The second paragraph elaborates on the subject, giving the reader the police commissioner's name and background.

It's difficult to say whether the  third paragraph is the nut graf, as it offers mostly background, instead of answering the "so what?" question. It seems the summary lede has replaced the nut graf in this article, a likely case in this short article.

The next three paragraphs provide more background on the topic. In the seventh paragraph, the reader hears from the other side, in this case the mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Importantly, this source provides the other side's opinion. 

The article has a "look ahead" ending, concerning the search for Sir Ian's replacement. It is structured in a background format, as it provides a great deal of information about what has happened before in the commissioner's career to cause his retirement. The a-b format is also used a little to give a sense of the opposing sides' opinions.  

Vice Presidential Candidates Square Off In Debate

By Ellen Jilek

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- In last night's first and only vice presidential debate, Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin sparred on tough issues including energy, taxes, economic policy, and the need for change.

The debate, held in Washington University in St Louis, Mo., was to focus on issues of domestic and foreign policy, with topics chosen by moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS. It was similar to the presidential debate held last week but followed a more structured format. The participants had 90 seconds to respond to questions, then two minutes to respond to each other. 

Biden began the debate, as determined by a coin toss beforehand. Immediately the candidates launched into the high-speed back-and-forth that is debate. Throughout the entire debate, however, the candidates attacked not each other, but the presidential candidate of the opposing party. The voting records of senators Barack Obama and John McCain were called into play on the issues of taxation, party polarization, alternative energy, and the conflicts abroad in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

"Everybody gets extra credit tonight," quipped Ifill, after both candidates failed to respond to one question she asked about how they would proceed if their respective candidate died in office. The dodging of questions and answering of unasked ones was another theme of the night. Neither candidate answered a question about what the trigger should be if the world was thrown into nuclear war; likewise with a question about whether an unstable Pakistan or Iran with nuclear weapons was more dangerous. Palin in particular left questions unanswered, in one case moving from a question concerning a bankruptcy bill of several years ago to her party's stance on energy. 

In the case of both candidates, nothing out of the ordinary was said or done. Both expressed typical party statements on all of the issues - Repulicans as usual favoring smaller government, and the Democrats vice versa. Both  candidates showed themselves to be their own definition of what a vice president should be - "supportive and cooperative of the president in all cases," as Palin put it. There was no clear winner in the evening's debate, as both participants made strong showings. Palin appealed to the American "Everyman" in using phrases such as "Joe six-pack" and "darn right." Biden showed his experience in formal debates and managed to shore up his arguments with many figures and statistics from different issues. Both agreed that America needs to work together in order to solve its problems, both abroad and at home. As Biden put it, "It's time for America to get up together."

Connecticut State Police Ban Radar Guns

By Ellen Jilek

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Connecticut State Police ordered a ban on hand-held radar guns yesterday amid rising concerns that the guns' radiation may cause cancer. 

"The feeling here is to err on the side of caution until more is known about the issue. The whole situation is under review," said Adam Berluti, a state police spokesman. 

The ban withdraws 70 hand-held radar guns from service and is considered to be the first of its kind adopted by a state police agency. It follows two months after three municipal police officers in Connecticut filed workers' compensation claims, saying they developed cancer from using the devices. 

The ban will remain in place while researchers study the possible links between use of the hand-held guns and cancer. State troopers will continue using radar units mounted on the outside of their cruisers. 

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Moulin Rouge Poster Description

By Ellen Jilek

KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- A poster of the Moulin Rouge hangs over my bed. In the poster, figures of women in dresses that graze the top of the women's cleavage ride ponies toward a red windmill. The windmill, though located in the center of the poster, remains part of the background. 

A blonde astride a black pony dominates the foreground of the poster, wearing a dress, shoes, and hat that match her hair. Her dress is accented with flowers, as is her hair, and she holds a branch of these flowers. She holds the reins of her pony's bridle but her eyes do not follow her mount's path. Looking down her nose, she directs her gaze and smile toward a point to the right of the poster. Four women, also astride ponies, but without the color and detail of the blonde, precede the blonde and ride into the background. A woman unlike the rest is located in the background of the blonde. She touches her hat and winks at a point to the right of the poster.

 

The French words "Bal au Moulin Rouge," with the subheading "Place Blanche" dominate the top of the poster. My bed's pillows obscure the words at the bottom. 

Presidential Debate Lede

by Ellen Jilek

KALAMAZOO, Mich.-- In today's global culture, foreign policy has become one of the most important parts of a candidate's platform.