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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Heroes for the people
The young Lebanese students who liberated the village of Arnoun in south Lebanon last week without guns, tanks or heavy artillery made all Arabs and oppressed peoples everywhere proud. Issuing statements, rushing to the Security Council for a resolution condemning Israeli aggression or seeking the mediation of the world's sole superpower, the United States: these have all proved their bankruptcy in the Arabs' five decades of attempts to regain their legitimate rights and liberate their occupied territories.What counts is reality on the ground. This should be one of the lessons the Arabs must learn from their enemies. When Israel surrounded the small village with barbed wire and announced its annexation to the occupied zone in south Lebanon, it did not take the world's permission. It has never done so, because it knows that the world condemns its acts and considers them illegal.
Israel is now isolated: the world community cannot even sympathise with it over its losses of soldiers, officers and generals in the so-called "security zone" in south Lebanon. This security zone is actually Israel's "insecurity zone" -- not to mention the graveyard of dozens of Israeli soldiers who are paying the price of their government's reckless policies and refusal to withdraw from occupied Lebanese soil. Heroic Lebanese resistance fighters, with fairly primitive weapons, have been able to shake the self-confidence of the traditionally arrogant Israeli military establishment.
The lesson which Israel has never managed to learn in its long conflict with its Arab neighbours is that no measures, however oppressive and racist they are, can kill the spirit of resistance in people's souls as long as they are deprived of their basic rights and are fighting for a just cause. The current right-wing Israeli government mistook the Arabs' acceptance of a peaceful settlement for a sign of weakness. But the peace the Arabs are seeking is a just peace, a peace that will restore their rights and liberate their occupied land in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Otherwise, resistance will continue. Otherwise, we will hear of more Arnouns, and more heroic acts carried out by Lebanese and other Arab resistance fighters.
