Firstly, it is well-documented that Israel offered the Palestinian National Authority, or PNA, peace on several occasions. In 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to return 96 percent of the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories and to divide Jerusalem. In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to leave lands equivalent to 100 percent of the West Bank and to divide Jerusalem.

On both aforementioned occasions, the PNA rejected those proposals and refused to make counter offers. Instead, Hamas — whose charter advocates eradicating Israel by installing an Islamic Palestinian state within its borders — ratcheted up rocket fire.

Apropos to nothing, the writer employs the word apartheid, a word reserved for specific and quite graver conditions. Goldsmith’s hypocrisy — or worse, naiveté — shows because he purposefully neglects the fact that the Hamas charter views Jews as diabolical and deserving of slaughter, and that world Zionism is responsible for every war throughout history.

Goldsmith states, “According to B’Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, since 2000, more than five times as many Palestinians have been killed by the IDF as have Israeli’s by Palestinian terrorism.” These statistics are moot because they were during the second intifada ­— an uprising of which Palestinians were the aggressors, and who forced innocents in the Gaza Strip to give up their homes for Hamas hideouts and weapons depots.

Under Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians received many benefits. Expressly, the life expectancy in the Palestinian territories is 73.4. Relatively, Jordan’s life expectancy is 72.5, while Turkey’s is 71.8, per the United Nations. What’s more, the economy in the territories is booming. In 2009, the economy grew 8 percent, besting Israeli growth. According to Alan Dershowitz’s book “The Case for Israel,” between 1967 and 1994, when Israel was responsible for health and medical services in the territories, more than 90 percent of children were immunized, and there was an increase in the control of contagious diseases, among other advances.

Many people who take Goldsmith’s view believe Israel’s occupation is the cause of all the problems in the Middle East. Hamas, Hezbollah and other rejectionist groups, however, exhibited unflagging commitment to terrorism despite numerous Israeli attempts at concession, such as the 2005 unilateral withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

Goldsmith mentions the 66-day hunger strike and detainment of Khader Adnan, who is a leader of terrorist group Islamic Jihad and has been arrested by the PNA in the past. Moreover, the method used to arrest Adnan, administrative detention, is legal under strict conditions according to article 78 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Additionally, article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows for administrative detention during times of public emergency that threaten the life of a nation. Make no mistake, Adnan is dangerous, as the organization of which he is the spokesperson blew up cafes in Haifa and shopping malls in Tel Aviv, among other attacks. As David Keyes recently wrote in The Daily Beast, “That anyone can call Adnan a hero … is only a sign of the moral turpitude of our time.”

Near the end of his diatribe, Goldsmith writes, “Jossie would like to have us all know how welcoming and affirming the Israeli military is for gay Israelis like him. Jossie’s video reaffirms what Professor Sarah Schulman wrote in The New York Times late last year about the ‘pink washing’ initiatives to use Israeli gays as the newest public relations tool in the United States. By appealing to American gays through the subtle promotion of Islamophobia, Israel hopes to undermine criticisms by American progressives, she writes.”

It is true that Israel forthrightly supports their gay and lesbian population. Why shouldn’t they point this out? There is not a single Arab nation where being gay is tolerated. Women and gays have more rights in Israel than they do anywhere else in the Middle East, as does every Arab that decides to immigrate to Israel. Shouldn’t the United States support a country like that?

Israel is an imperfect nation. Nevertheless, it cannot be forgotten that they are a nation besieged by enemies and embroiled in a situation only defined through shades of gray. I only ask that next time The State News decides to publish a fact-based opinion, you respect intellect and examine the topic from every possible angle.

Eric Steingold is a State News guest columnist and English junior. Reach him at steingo5@msu.edu.