The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a heated topic wherever you go. Everyone has an opinion, and there is an almost infinite array of agendas and ideologies at war when it comes to any facet of the issue.Without a doubt, the Middle East is one of the most complex flashpoints in the world today. This is why I find myself so often annoyed by the views many at Brandeis hold. Namely, there are a large number of people who blindly support any Israeli action, and who seem to have convinced themselves that every Palestinian is born -- and will die -- a terrorist.

I can't claim to relate to the plight of the everyday Israeli; I was there just once, several summers back, during a relatively peaceful period. And, as much as we have fooled ourselves post-September 11th into thinking we're in a similar boat, we're not.

The events of September 11th took as many lives as hundreds of suicide bombings combined, but what Israel endures happens regularly. The September 11th occurred once. So, I am not pretending to understand what it would be like to feel an undercurrent of fear every time I got on a bus or went to the Natick Mall. Nonetheless, I still feel there needs to be a reworking of how people view the conflict if there is ever going to be peace.

The idea of one side being right and the other wrong in a conflict such as this is ridiculous. It stopped being that simple a long time ago. Two of the more extreme viewpoints seem to be: The Palestinians will not stop until every last Israeli Jew is dead and Israel ceases to exist, or, Israel is an oppressive, racist state hell-bent on completely disenfranchising the Palestinians. Neither is correct, and often, both are fueled in part by anti-Arabic and anti-Semitic sentiments.

This is not the kind of statement that is easily proven, but I hold the view that Israelis and Palestinians share a common goal: Each group wants its citizens to live peaceful lives, with as fair a shot at prosperity as anyone. I reject the notion that the Palestinians are, as a whole, violent -- rather, the fringe fundamentalist element is able to easily manipulate disillusioned people into violent acts through scapegoating and other forms of coercion. If the Palestinians lived as well as the Israelis, there would be much less violence, because people don't generally tend towards radical religious violence when they have little to complain about. The better off the Palestinians are, the less luck a Jihad-proselytizing psychotic will have when recruitment time rolls around.

It's hard to argue that the average Palestinian lives a good life. He (or she) is often dodging gunfire, Israeli tanks are rolling down his streets on a regular basis and, thanks in part to corrupt, clueless leader Yasser Arafat, belongs to a group with no infrastructure whatsoever. Is it any wonder how such an individual, after viewing the proper propaganda, could become enraged at Israel? Maybe, just maybe, such anger is there for a reason and not because of some inborn hatred for Israel and Jews.

Before readers stone me for the previous paragraph, I need to clarify a few things. The reason such an individual is dodging gunfire and tanks in the first place is usually that some member of his own community saw fit to hurl himself at innocent Israelis. So, reasonably enough, Israel responds by seeking out the agitators who perpetrate such activities. That's not to say that every Israeli incursion into a Palestinian territory is justified or that every action taken during such an incursion is ethical, but the point is that Israel is not engaging in such activities without reason.

The sequence of events is clear right away -- suicide bombing to anger to military reaction to anger to suicide bombing, and on and on. How could anyone pick a side in such a sociologically-complicated cycle? Isn't there at least some possibility that both sides are often at fault?

I refuse to condemn the Palestinians as a whole. Do I condemn suicide bombings? Of course I do, emphatically and unhesitatingly. Dubbing all Palestinians terrorists, however, or supporting every Israeli action without thinking about how it affects people on both sides of the conflict only leads to further hatred and violence.

Nothing I've said here is particularly original. It just seems as though many people at Brandeis have, when it comes to Israel, forgotten that conflicts are rarely, if ever, simple, good-versus-evil affairs.