Investing in the Right Future

A better future for everyone lies in unlocking the gates to Gaza and allowing us to learn and gain exposure to the broader world – with all of the challenges, controversies and diverse perspectives it offers.

That's cute. Maybe we should also allow Iranian students to study nuclear physics at MIT? "The poor boy only wants to learn computer science, you heartless Firouz!" Half the top leadership of al Qaeda learned engineering and medicine. This did nothing to civilize their brutality, but entrenched and structured their hatred and vitriol with intellectual rationality.

Why was Abed denied, when others were not? Why is there "secret evidence" on Abed, and not on the half dozen Gaza students who continued on their Fullbright dreams? "Secret Evidence"? Not so secret, since it was shared with US officials, who denied him the visa, not Israel.

Could the secret evidence against me have been extracted through the torture of some young Palestinian?

What about torture of an old Palestinian? It doesn't really matter, does it? Torture is wrong. Of course, it also works.

This reminds me of a documentary about the original PLO women fighters; the ones who were the first to start bombing Israeli buses and gunning down families in their sleep, back in the 1960s. Back then Palestinian society was not violent and would often turn them in to avoid trouble with Israel.

She explains quite clearly how the PLO used terror attacks against Israeli civilians to trigger a disproportionate Israeli military response, and then capitalized on the resulting anger among the people to recruit angry young men.

In any case, the former PLO woman tells how when she was finally captured, Israel knew she had hidden weapons and explosives somewhere, but they did not know where. They beat her, but she would not say anything.

Then they sat her down an a desk, made her some tea, brought in another PLO woman fighter and beat the second woman in front of her.

Finally the Israeli interrogator ripped the second woman's clothes off and raped her with something like a bat or a baton. That's when the first PLO woman had enough and told Israel everything: where she hid the weapons and the explosives and all her friends who were waiting in Jordan with orders to attack so and so, on this date and on that date. And this is what she admitted on camera! Who knows what Israel finally got out of her.

Gruesome? Yes. Brutal? Barbaric? Inhuman? Yes. Then again, no one asked her to murder innocent people. Fuck her and fuck her friend. The only thing that matters is the interrogation was successful, and innocent people, who did not choose that life, were saved.

The only thing I could think of after the movie ended was, torture works!

Was my “crime” sharing a classroom or a lunchtime conversation with someone Israel believes poses a danger?

Now we're getting somewhere. He knows EXACTLY what's going on, and what "secret evidence" Israel has on him. I am willing to bet he chose his words specifically to create doubt about the details of the evidence Israel has on him. Perhaps he was approached by terror groups at a lunchroom or classroom, and asked to perform some tasks for them in America. Whatever it is, he knows exactly.

Granting students from around the world scholarships to study at America's best universities is a privilege. This country is fully capable of making the right decisions about who it should invest our finite resources and human capital in.

I have no doubt there are some bright Georgian students, who are not at war with the West, who did not participate in terrorist activities, nor supported terrorist groups, who will certainly not be using their future skills for Jihad.

In fact, there are even some Gazan students who, too, meet such criteria.

Fidaa Abed is just not one of them.