To the Editor:

I understand the Students for Justice in Palestine’s frustration with what they see as a one-sided understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the column by Aravinda Ananda ’05 and Ross Anderson ’03 (“SJP talks back and sets the record straight,” 11/21) struck me as somewhat dishonest. Specifically, their call for “a singular secular democratic state with equal rights for all of its citizens” combined with the “inalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes” appears to be a clear call for the end of Israel. While it is certainly anyone’s right to pursue the demise of a Jewish state in the Middle East, it seems hypocritical to simultaneously claim that one’s goal is “reconciliation for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” If the right of return is granted and all U.S. support withdrawn, Israel will soon be faced with a Palestinian majority able to democratically end the idea of a Jewish homeland forever. SJP may not be an anti-Semitic organization, but the logical outcome of its demands seems to me to be the stuff of an anti-Semitic paradise. Is that reconciliation?

Patrick Anderson ’01

November 21, 2002