Re: "S.A. Debates Iran Stance," News, Apr. 28

To the Editor:

For those unsure of how Resolution 29 directly affects Cornell University interests, two campuses (the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar as well as the Bridging the Rift Center on the Israeli-Jordanian border) are directly within firing range of Iran's missiles. The collaborative effort that will take place at the BTR center seeks to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians through scientific cooperation, and yet this would be completely thwarted were a nuclear Iran to lash out at Israel. As for Resolution 29's opposition, I question their highly vocal concern towards the politicizing of the S.A. Resolution 29's supporters cannot be held responsible for this. It's understandable that some Cornellians would like an apolitical S.A., but in fact, it is the opposition - those who in previous years pushed resolutions regarding the war in Iraq or human rights violations in Kosovo and South Africa - that have set the precedent for a politically active S.A. Given their past political utilization of the S.A., they should not be questioning the assembly's role as a student organization, but rather, the specific content of the Resolution. However, were they to do so, they would likely expose their true motivations for their opposition to Resolution 29, which are likely more political and less peaceful than they would like to admit.

David Kieferbaum '08

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