In regard to Mike McCurdy ("Peace Team motive misrepresented" SN 4/8), I believe he misses the point. I don't think anyone doubts what the Michigan "Peace" Team's mission is. It is quite obvious that the Michigan Peace Team is a group that is totally one-sided in its cause. Regardless of what McCurdy's personal beliefs are, the group clearly supports the Palestinians, almost blindly.

The bias is shown in how McCurdy refers to "Occupied Palestine," and refers to Israel as "a brutal military occupation." Apparently, McCurdy doesn't know his history, and fails to realize that ever since Israel's inception, the Fundamentalist Islamic States that surround the "Zionist Nation" have been actively seeking to destroy it.

Israel is out for its own survival and is hated because it is A) Jewish and B) democratic. There are countless statements made by the Palestinian "leader" Yasser Arafat and other Middle Eastern Leaders proclaiming things like "The Jews need to go" and other distasteful and anti-semitic remarks. Make no mistake about it, my friends, the same people who hate Israel hate the United States, and vice versa, because both believe in freedom and democracy. The violence will not end until Palestinians stop killing innocent civilians, regardless of what Israel tries to do.

Brett A. Gillespie
Lansing Community College student