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In 2013, Arab Palestinians again walked out of peace talks and instead recently approached the U.N. to recognize their stale. But can the U.N. dictate an Israeli-Palestinian peace.. .or create a Palestinian state? What are the facts? Over the past 66 years, since Israel’s formation, the Palestinians have had numerous opportunities to create a sovereign state. Following Israel’s repulsion of three invading Arab armies in 1967, the Jewish state offered to negotiate peace with the Arabs and to return land captured during that war. The Arabs rejected this overture with their famous Khartoum Resolution: “No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel and no negotiations with it. ” Decades later, during U.S.- sponsored peace negotiations with the Palestinians in 2000, 2001 and 2008, Israel offered the Palestinians most of its ancient Jewish lands, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), plus Gaza, plus a capital in Jerusalem for their state, but the Palestinians rejected each of these offers. At the heart of the Palestinians’ refusal to accept a lasting peace is their steadfast rejection of the demand that they accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish state. Would it bring peace if the U.N. were to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state? A peace accord between Israel and the [Palestinians must resolve many thorny issues for both sides. What should the borders of a new Palestinian state be, since no borders ever existed? How should the nations share Jerusalem? How can Israel be assured of security in light of existential threaLs from the Palestinian terror group, Hamas, which insists that Israel must be destroyed, as well as from terrorists such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda, both based in nearby .Syria? If Israel relinquishes the territories it controls, what guarantees does it have that the Palestinians will finally accept its existence and not continue the six-decade Arab effort to obliterate the Jewish state? Unfortunately, a recent poll shows that a 60% majority of Palestinians still believe their goal should be to conquer all of Israel, from the A majority of Palestinians still believe their goal should be to conquer all of Israel. Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Surely a U.N. resolution recognizing a Palestinian state cannot possibly address, let alone resolve these issues. Rather, Israel and the Palestinians must continue the arduous path to peace—and to a Palestinian state—that can be achieved only through negotiations. Would U.N. recognition lead to a secure and viable Palestinian state? Palestinian institutions are currently so weak that it’s doubtful their state could currently survive on its own. Despite tens of billions of dollars donated primarily by the U.S. and European nations to aid the Palestinians, their economy is in shambles, with few viable industries and a crumbling infrastructure. Indeed, without continued international aid of more than a billion dollars annually, the economy would likely collapse. In addition, the Palestinian political system is dysfunctional, riven by corruption and in lighting verging on civil war. Because the Palestinians have held no elections since 2005, President Mahmoud Abbas is now in his tenth year of a four-year term. According to a 2013 European Union audit, some $2.7 billion in international aid to the Palestinians is unaccounted for, believed to have been siphoned off to corrupt leaders within Abbas’ ruling Fatah party. Billions more aid dollars have been diverted to help Hamas build rockets and tunnels used to attack Israeli civilians. Finally, continued violent disputes between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza make their "unity government” incapable of governance. In fact, most analysts believe that if Israel were to withdraw its security forces from the West Bank, Hamas would quickly seize control there, too, turning the Palestinian territories into another terrorist state. In short, no decree by the United Nations can give the Palestinians the strength and stability necessary to manage the rigorous, high-stakes demands of statehood. A unilateral UN. declaration of Palestinian statehood cannot resolve the fundamental disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors, especially the requirement that the Palestinians accept the Jewish state. In addition, such a U.N. resolution will not address the disarray and instability within Palestinian society that makes statehood functionally unrealistic at this time. Perhaps most importantly, a U.N. declaration would only encourage Palestinians to believe that negotiations with Israel are unnecessary to reach their goals—that they can achieve statehood without resolving the tough issues that have to date made it illusive. Thus the U.S. arid other U.N. Security Council members must continue to vote against and, if necessary, veto attempts by the Palestinians to avoid good-faith peace talks with Israel. This message has been published and paid for by FLAME Facts and Logic About the Middle East P.O. Box 590359 ■ San Francisco, CA 94159 Gerardo Joffe, President James Sinkinson, Vice President FLAME is a lax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c>(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail. To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org SpaceX's dragon capsule delivered its 5th successful ISS supply run Jan. 10. Private companies join NASA in America's next space race John Rangel SciTech editor I ust before 4 a.m. Jan. 10, a SpaceX I rocket conducted its fifth successful sup- v ply run to the International Space Sta tion. The rocket’s first stage also attempted an engineering first by coming close to a controlled landing after it detached from the payload. In any other decade, such a routine resupply mission — and the rocket’s dar ing landing attempt — would have been NASA’s work. 2014 and the new year, however, ushered in a modern era. Billions of dollars were awarded to private compa nies to build machines capable of carrying men and women beyond Earth, private rockets exploded and a private spaceplane pilot died. Success and failure abounded, but through it all one fact emerged — private companies, not just government agencies, will help carry America back to a leadership position in manned space exploration. No other year beside 2014 better high lighted this trend. American ISS resupply missions are routinely launched by private rockets, shuttled by private spacecraft, and managed in part by private control rooms. NASA awarded $6.8 billion to Boeing and SpaceX to develop next-generation craft to replace the retired shuttle fleet. And the Orion capsule, the development of which was spearheaded by Lockheed Martin to FLU CONTINUED rector for medical services at Student Health Services, said a number of the reported cases of flu-related deaths can be traced back to immune system difficulties. "A lot of it depends on the immune status of the person,” Teller said. “So the ones that go on to have not such a great result, most of them have some immune issues. There’s something wrong with their immune sys tems, they don’t fight infections as well.” Mendez said many fatal flu cases are found in the very young or the elderly. “We see the vulnerable populations in children, like small children, and then older adults, just because in small kids their immune systems aren’t built up, older adults, their im mune systems are starting to slow down, and so they can have more complications where the flu can lead to pneumonia and those kinds of things, just because their immune systems aren’t able to fight them off,” Mendez said. Teller said exhaustion also plays into the strength of an immune system. “For students at the end of the semester, you’re probably worn out or exhausted and that’s also a factor of the immune system,” Teller said. “But it’s a common fact of life. Students have to study and go on through the fatigue, and being worn out at the end of the semester is a fact of life. It would be great if you could get plenty of sleep, eat well, exercise, but when the finals start coming in, you just run out of time.” Communication junior Lisa Cordero con tracted the flu over winter break and said while a lot of people tend to overreact, if carry men and women to Mars and beyond, underwent its first orbital test. 1 he year’s success, however, was muted somewhat by two catastrophic failures. An Orbital Sciences rocket exploded just sec onds after liftoff, destroying supplies bound tor the ISS. And Virgin Galactic’s signature spaceplane — SpaceShipTwo — disintegrat ed in midair after igniting its booster rocket, killing one pilot and injuring another. These failures raise questions about NA SA’s privatization gamble. Orbital Sciences came out of the explosion with few financial scars, but how many failures can a for-profit company endure before it folds? NASA experienced more failure than success at the start of the original space race, at great cost to their budget and to human life. It remains to be seen if a private company is capable of rebounding from such repeated tragedy. But despite these drawbacks, 2014 showed that space exploration is no longer a game restricted to superpowers who clash over supremacy as a means to showcase military might and ideological dominance. America’s board pieces now include private companies arrayed against a variety of na tions, and themselves. Weapons research and national prestige are still sought-after prizes, but just as important are lucrative govern ment contracts, and space’s untold consumer wealth. 2014 was an exciting time — let’s just hope future drawbacks don’t dampen this rising spirit. John Rangel is an aerospace engineering junior and SciTech editor for The Battalion. they follow doctor’s instructions the flu is treatable. “One thing you hear when you get the flu, you hear that you need to go to the hospi tal, or it’s so severe, but it’s just one of those things where if you rest and you’re at home and you listen to the doctor, it’s fine,” Cor dero said. “If you get it. just drink a lot of water, that’s about it. That’s one thing the doctor said, to basically do overkill with wa ter, and that definitely helped.” Regardless of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine, Mendez said it’s still important to get vaccinated, even this late in the season, because the vaccine is still the best preven tion method. “It’s not too late to get vaccinated now, and it is still important just because there are different strains in the vaccine,” Mendez said. “So some vaccines have three different strains, some have four, and although it may be a mismatch on that one strain we’re still going to get protection on those others.” For those who are opposed to being vacci nated or don’t have the means to do so, Teller said good hygiene is the next line of defense. Flu season typically lasts from October to March, so numbers are declining. Teller is optimistic it should continue to decrease in scope until it disappears entirely. “If the weather stays good, you guys stay healthy, don’t get one Typhoid Mary’ kind of person in the crowd, that one person that just has to go to class and cough on every body, is just the downfall,” Teller said. “Stay healthy, eat right, get sleep, exercise.” Aggieland2015 It’s not too late to order your copy of the 2015 Aggieland yearbook. The 113th edition of Texas A&M’s official yearbook will chronicle the 2014-2015 school year - traditions, academics, athletics, the other education, the Corps, Greeks, residence halls, campus organizations, and student portraits. Distribution will be in Fall 2015. By credit card go online to http://aggieland.tamu.edu or call 979-845-2613. Or drop by the Student Media office in Suite L400 of the MSC. Aggieland2015