Obama – Iran, not Israel, is your enemy

By Gabriel Schivone January 18, 2012

In October 2011, I did not find out that captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was going to be released by reading newspaper articles or watching television reports, but because an entire street was closed off to allow for the singing and dancing brought on by the announcement. Many Israeli teenagers are in the army, making a noticeable difference in the lives of their neighbors. While American college freshmen learn how to read and analyze articles about weapons and warfare, 18-year-old Israeli soldiers are trained in how to protect their families and friends. It is not fair for the rest of the world to judge Israel for doing what it takes to survive. How can we understand the mentality of a country that survives despite a day-to-day struggle? How many other countries have to fight for recognition from their neighbors? How many had to fend off war on three different borders mere hours being declared a country? Would any other country be raked over the coals for standing up to the threat of nuclear war?

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New Voices blogger Gabe Schivone’s new HuffPo column [All grown up]

By Harpo Jaeger January 18, 2012

Our own Gabe Schivone, who wrote the interview series Other Voices last semester, has moved on to his very own Huffington Post column.  His first piece is up: Any free society–from Margaret Thatcher’s Apartheid-era Britain to Obama’s currently anti-immigrant America–cannot expect to adequately deal with the sort of violence that prompted the Tucson shootings while refusing to…

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