31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002 Issue No.571 |
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Weighing the options
Mohamed El-Said Idris* explains why resistance is necessary
The debate over whether the Palestinians should liberate their land through war or peace is a recurrent one and, for the most part, it poses the wrong questions. In this, as well as in most national liberation sagas, war and peace are not mutually exclusive options. In the Palestinian case, there is one complication, however. The Palestinians do not have an army, which excludes at least one type of armed struggle. The Oslo accords did not allow the Palestinian Authority to have more than security forces, whose weaponry is controlled strictly by the Israelis.
Making the two options seem mutually exclusive suggests that the Palestinians can only take the path of peace. This would be a mistake.
First, Israel's occupation of Palestine is most unusual. Colonialism has been defeated everywhere else, but the Israelis are perpetuating it with international support. Besides occupying certain areas of Palestine, Israel is still striving to expel the Palestinians. Having infused Judaism with nationalist characteristics, it aspires to uproot them from their land and replace them with Jews from across the world. The aim of gathering Jews from all over the world in Palestine, or at least giving them "honorary membership" in a Jewish state, is the reason for Israel's relentless desire to expel the Palestinians.
This commitment to colonialism underlies the confrontation. No negotiations can be successful as long as the Israelis monopolise Palestine. Israel was born through armed action by Zionist militias during the British mandate. It has survived through war and military expansion. If the Palestinians hope to regain their rights, they will have to resist.
The reduction of the Arab-Israeli conflict to its Palestinian-Israeli aspect underscores the need for resistance. Since the Palestinians have little recourse to cross-border operations against Israel, the Intifada is their primary means of resistance. Resistance, of course, does not negate political settlement. It may actually help bring it about. True, the Intifada is facing a dilemma. Sharon is apparently determined to torpedo the peace process, and the US, having found in terrorism a convenient excuse, is more than happy to help its ally. With Arab inaction currently verging on collaboration, and with Yasser Arafat marooned in his Ramallah office, the picture looks bleak.
The only political option available at the moment is capitulation. National resistance is therefore the only way to resuscitate credible political efforts. Right now, only resistance can achieve peace.
The Intifada also unnerves the Israelis. The uprising has proved most effective in keeping them on high alert. Not since the creation of Israel, with the notable exception of the first days of the 1973 War, has the domestic situation been as fragile as it is today. The economic cost of the Intifada, in terms of investment and tourism, has been massive. Israel's security budget has ballooned at the expense of basic services.
The Intifada is chipping away at a wall of invincibility by breaching Israel's psychological defences. The pain of the current confrontation is felt on both sides. Many Israelis have actually left the country. Israel has its own dilemmas, and the Intifada is sharpening them. It is forcing Israeli leaders to reconsider the establishment of a Palestinian state on the land seized in 1967.
As things stand now, nationalist resistance is a condition for peace as the Palestinians envision it. Resistance is the only answer to Sharon's murderous definition of peace. Sharon does not believe in giving back Palestinian land. The most he and other extremists, including the slain former minister Rehavam Ze'evi, have offered is "cantons" for the Palestinians to live in. Israel's hawks want to empty Palestine so that it can accommodate millions of new Jewish immigrants. They have nothing to offer the Palestinians but expulsion, or death. For them, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are irrelevant. Faced with such a mentality, the Palestinians have no option but to resist.
* The writer is an analyst at the Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre.
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