Ex-CIA officials criticize Israel, draw student protestors

Two former CIA officials in a Friend Center auditorium on Sunday argued that American and Israeli policies were devastating Palestinian communities, as a pro-Israel student group protested outside.

Bill and Kathleen Christison, who have gained recognition as vocal critics of Israel since retiring from the CIA in 1979, spoke at the event, which was cosponsored by the International Center and the Princeton Middle East Society, an off-campus group composed largely of community members.

"The situation for Palestine today is beyond question the worst it has been," Bill Christison said. "The present U.S. foreign policy of Israel is terribly immoral. George Bush's war on terror will never end unless the U.S. first accepts and compels Israel to accept a just and moral resolution to Palestine-Israel conflict."

The Christisons, who have traveled to the West Bank four times in the last three years, singled out for criticism the security wall Israel has constructed along its border with the West Bank. The wall, they argued, has constricted rapidly growing Palestinian neighborhoods and contributed to economic, infrastructure and social problems.

As they spoke, the pair showed slides of makeshift latrines, military checkpoints and caged walkways in the West Bank.

In an interview before the lecture, Kathleen Christison spoke of her ideological shift from "Reagan Republican" to foreign-policy critic.

"With us, it was a slow evolution," she said. "Just living away from Washington in New Mexico has given us a different perspective."

Bill Christison said three watershed moments — the Vietnam War, the end of the Cold War and Sept. 11, 2001 — have shaped his foreign-policy views.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Christison said, "The immediate reaction of the government was, 'We're going to war!' The government did not recognize the actual causes behind the acts of aggression."

As community members and some students filed into the Friend Center auditorium before the speech, student members of the Princeton Israel Public Affairs Committee (PIPAC) distributed literature disputing past statements of the Christisons.

PIPAC members, who wore the white and blue colors of the Israeli flag, said University-sponsored speakers on Middle East issues have been unfairly skewed in a pro-Palestinian direction.

"If a student group says, 'We're pro-Palestinian,' that's okay," Zvi Smith '09 said. "If a university is sponsoring an event, there must be a fair viewpoint."

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Another PIPAC member, Isaiah Soval-Levine '09, said, "In the past couple of months, there have been four pro-Palestine events and no pro-Israel events."

At least one student in the audience agreed with PIPAC's criticisms, saying the Christisons did not give sufficient consideration to Palestinian involvement in attacks on Israeli civilians.

"I feel they portrayed a biased point of view of the facts," Carra Glatt '09 said. "They avoided discussion of the very real problems of Palestinian terrorism."

Marilyn Jerry, president of the 110-member Princeton Middle East Society, prefaced the Christisons' remarks with some criticisms of her own. She warned that the region may be heading for "additional conflicts, additional bloodshed" if Israel does not reverse some of its policies.

"It's difficult to see how Israel's policies of expanding, building walls and confiscating lands and orchards can lead to a settlement," she said.