Word: counter
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...intention is not to gloss over the differences. The protesters and counter-protesters probably disagree on many of the finer details of a Mideast peace plan, from the final status of East Jerusalem, to the rights of Palestinian refugees, to the status of large Israeli settlements. These issues remain stumbling blocks to any agreement. However, on a fundamental level we agree: the violence must end; terrorism and state terror must end; the occupation must end; and a just peace includes a Palestinian state...
However, the counter-protesters did not hold the monopoly on ignorance. I freely admit that I was mistaken in thinking I knew what the counter-protesters stood for. I figured that if the protesters were pro-human rights and anti-occupation, then surely the counter-protesters must have been anti-human rights and pro-occupation? They were, after all, staging a loud and angry counter-protest intending to discredit the Palestinian rights supporters...
...Beneath a bumpy surface of inflamed rhetoric, there lay a foundation for mutual understanding. Believe it or not, these two groups, who stood on opposite sides of the street, chanting against each other, would actually agree on quite a bit. Despite their opposition to the demonstration, most of the counter-protesters to whom I spoke acknowledged that what was happening to the Palestinians was “terrible thing” and that Palestinian statehood was a necessity for lasting peace, even if it meant uprooting some of the settlements in the West Bank...
...what was the purpose of the counter-protest? Why a vehement opposition if they recognized the validity of the Palestinian claims human rights and self-determination? They were out there because they opposed the “one sidedness” of the demonstration and they didn’t want Israel being demonized...
...counterarguments present themselves. Proponents of the Senior Gift would counter that I can earmark my donations to causes such as undergraduate financial aid, which is a laudable program. Still, the record of the financial aid office at Harvard has been less than stellar. Although aid has increased in recent years, these changes have been the result of competitive pressure, not a desire to meaningfully benefit the lives of students. Harvard, I feel confident in claiming, would never have made such changes had Princeton not taken the lead. If I am going to give money to support undergraduate financial...