Palestine Bid for Statehood

There has been a lot of controversy lately over Palestine's attempt to be recognized in the UN as an independent state. Which is kind of stupid. What's controversial is that Palestine isn't a UN member state already. We all agree that the only solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is to have two free states living side-by-side, yes? So why shouldn't Palestine be recognized in the UN? They already exist. Just because they were stupid 60 years ago and rejected the UN's partition plan that made Israel a state doesn't mean that they shouldn't be allowed to recognize their mistake and get another chance. If the Holy See is a state, doesn't Palestine have a right to be one too?

What's even stupider about this whole debate is that Israel and the US don't want Palestine to even be an observer member of the UN. This is ridiculous. The Red Cross is an observer member of the UN. Are you telling me that the Red Cross is more of a country than Palestine is?

President Obama, unfortunately, seems to be taking the traditional support-Israel-at-all-costs route. This whole situation shows some of the problems with his governing style. Just a couple of months ago he gave a landmark speech recognizing the need to base the Palestinian and Israeli states on the pre-1967 borders (with some land swaps). When this speech didn't really accomplish anything, he backed off and put the kid gloves back on when handling Israel. He's now agreeing to their every illogical demand in an attempt to be a "conciliator", much like what happened with the debt-ceiling debate.

Going into the broader issue of Israeli diplomacy, this issue brings to light once again how unnecessarily heavy-handed and self-destructive Israel's foreign relations are. Obviously they are a country that has a right to be fearful and aggressive- they're surrounded by countries that essentially hate them. But that is no excuse for them to be so unnecessarily belligerent or violent. I read stories all the time of rocket attacks by Palestinian terrorists killing one or two innocent Israeli civilians. This is obviously a sad and horrible thing. But rather than being level-headed about it and responding in an appropriate way, Israel goes out and kills several innocent Palestinian civilians (along with several militants). This may feel good in the short run but is extremely harmful to Israel in the long run- it's hard to be allies with a country like that.

I'm not saying that this whole conflict is all Israel's fault- historically it's definitely more the fault of the Arab states than Israel. I'm just saying that right now Palestine is facing severe injustice and the UN should try to do what it can to alleviate that.

Why I probably won't be watching many Redskins games this year

I've been a Redskins fan since first grade, when I was taught by raving Redskins fan and former Redskins employee Mrs. Morrison. But this year I'm facing an existential question- am I really a Redskins fan when I don't plan to watch the games and am rooting against the coach, quarterback, and running back? I'm sure I'm not alone in my significant loss of interest towards the Redskins. I'm starting to think that Dan Snyder and Mike Shanahan have made it their mission to eliminate as much fan interest in their team as possible, because there's no way they could have been so spectacularly successful by accident.

I could handle the years of losing, because there was always one young player at one of the star positions who I could latch onto. While I couldn't always cheer for the team, there was always a player I could cheer for. Not anymore. With the advent of the My Way Mike coaching era, any player who you could possibly rally behind is gone. Jason Campbell? Gone (okay I understand but don't support that one). His replacement, future Pro-bowler Donovan Mcnabb? Gone. Clinton Portis, Malcolm Kelly, Devin Thomas? Gone. My favorite player last year was actually Brandon Banks and I don't think I was alone in this. This year, Banks almost got cut. The fact that this was even a possibility is infuriating and an example of what is wrong with Mike Shanahan as a head coach. Now we're left with Rex Grossman and Tim Hightower to try to cheer for. And Snyder is wondering where all the fans went?

Hightower and Grossman are two of the main reasons for my apathy towards the team this year. Does anybody else realize that at the two most important positions in the game- quarterback and running back, the Redskins are starting two players who have already failed on much better teams? Is this a formula for success? This team sucks, and yet no one seems to realize it. There is no talk of rebuilding. There is no quarterback of the future. There is no running back of the future (unless Roy Helu turns out to be as good in the regular season as he was in the preseason). There is probably not even a single wide receiver of the future. Callers on 106.7 The Fan are arguing about how the Redskins are going to be 5-11, not 2-14. And yet you have quotes like this from Santana Moss: "When you’re going into a year when you’re trying to win now, you’re trying to do some things, you want to be solid at the QB position." As a team and as an organization, the Redskins are completely deluded, and until they wake up, I don't see any reason to care.