Andrew James and Marcus Miller

Salma Khaleq's criticisms of Ambassador Dennis Ross' Middle Eastern Politics course are very worthy of analysis and consideration, considering that Khaleq is a part of and direct contributor to the complexities of the Palestinian narrative. The Middle Eastern conflict is complex and, as Khaleq effectively communicates, is of vital importance to learn about due to the heavy casualties and dire conditions inherent in the region. When we first heard that Ross — a nationally respected statesman — was coming to Marquette, we immediately knew that his course was the only one that we truly cared about getting into. Our experience in the course as "outsiders" to the conflict does differ from Khaleq's experience, but a defense of the class and a response to her argument seems warranted in our opinion.

An important fact that Khaleq ignores in her criticism is Ross' goals and structure for the class were never intended to reflect the entirety of either narrative in the conflict. Ross' goals for the course were to present his particular experience of the conflict, not an objective analysis nor a full historical account. He even went so far as to describe his own book as a "memoir" of his story to be analyzed. Also important is the fact that Ross has not covered any narrative presented in the course so far in its entirety. The class itself is not meant to be a history course. Ross stated very clearly in the first lecture that he approached the conflict as resolvable and that his course was meant to give the students a perspective to both understand the region and think critically about whether a solution was possible. To include the entirety of the Palestinian narrative (or the entirety of any of the narratives presented in the class) would easily take more than a full semester itself, especially trying to engage in this task for a region that has experienced conflict as early as 70 A.D.

As another defense of Ross' course, Khaleq has had plenty of opportunities to discuss the issues that she raised in her column with the ambassador and the rest of the class. If she felt as though her view was being neglected or that Ambassador Ross was being unfair, she could have spoken up in class and given her opinion or visited the ambassador during his office hours before class. There are other problems that we have with Khaleq's argument in her column as well. She seems to ambiguously indict Ross' course as ignorant; however, her actual argument appears to be that he incorrectly portrays the Palestinian narrative. Contrary to both claims, Ross spent the first two lectures of the course on the Israeli and Arab narratives, which totals five hours of lecture material. In addition, the Arab and Palestinian narrative itself accumulates 17 pages in his book, discussing the merits of Pan-Arabism and when a Palestinian identity actually formed. Ross required that every student read an article by Rashid Khalidi discussing what Palestinian identity means in modern society and how security concerns of the present have reflected past struggles. While we're confident in Khaleq's claim that reading Edward Said's works would be beneficial, it can hardly be stated that the ambassador is ignoring the Palestinian cause by omitting his perspective.

To accuse Ross of ignoring the plight of the Palestinians seems both harsh and unwarranted. His background seems to indicate that Palestinian authorities were willing to trust him. He is worshipped as a celebrity on campus for good cause — as a distinguished lecturer of and one of the foremost contributors to the topic in the last decade, he deserves the respect of an expert. Ross' conclusion is ultimately the correct one: if any particular viewpoint is accepted as more important or more legitimate than another, peace will remain impossible and narratives on all sides of the conflict will become meaningless.

Andrew James and Marcus Miller are students in the College of Arts & Sciences.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on March 31 2005.