I was offended by the last column by Farhan Bhatti ("Jihad needs to be clarified to U.S. public," SN 2/27). The first half of his column was very correct; since Sept. 11, 2001, the media has painted a rather offensive view of Islam, a view which is incorrect and needs to be rectified.

However, toward the middle of Bhatti's diatribe, he brings up the Israel/Palestinian conflict. First of all, his hypothetical situation does not really occur; Israel does not "invade" Palestinian cities. Israel tries to apprehend murderers who murder men, women and children who try and eat at restaurants, Passover Seders, discothèques, etc.

He doesn't add in the hate factor; the presence of hate, racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Palestinian media. Arab racism, to the degree of anti-Semitism in Palestinian media, is absent in Israeli media. He doesn't mention this.

Furthermore, he blames all anti-Americanism in the Middle East on American aid to Israel. Whether he forgot to mention it or he did not mention it on purpose, he does not tell readers that we also give almost $200 million to the Palestinian Authority. While of course this is not as much as we give Israel, $200 million pays for quite a lot of suicide bombs (and it was proven last year, with internal documents, that Palistinian leader Yasser Arafat does fund suicide bombings).

I understand many people live in dire conditions in the Middle East. But bigotry, xenophobia and racism are not the ways to go. Maybe next time Bhatti can heed this message as well.

Jared Goldberg
pre-med freshman