6 - 12 June 2002 Issue No.589 Opinion	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

The ghost of defeat

By Medhat El-Zahed

The Israeli government's latest tactic, which as usual is supported by Washington, is to circulate the notion that Operation Defensive Shield was in effect another 5 June defeat and the Palestinians accrued no political capital.

That Israel's continued attacks and arrests are barbaric does not seem to bother Washington as much as the suggestion that the Palestinians might have made some progress. It should be emphasised, first and foremost, that in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli war measuring the success of each side requires different criteria. While Israel possesses the means and the technology, the Palestinians possess only their will; it is on this will, not on the impossible task of breaking Israel's military might, that the future of the Palestinian nation depends.

It is in this light that the shift in the emphasis of the Western media from the random killing of the populations of Nablus and Jenin and the horrors of the occupation to Palestinian corruption and autocracy must be seen. Ludicrously, Washington has prioritised Palestinian reform over Israeli withdrawal, and in return for the proposed reforms Palestinians can expect to be on the Nations Waiting List, nothing more. The most dangerous aspect of this arrangement is that it undermines the essence of the Palestinian will to resist: in the war for national independence the painful and destructive effects of a military campaign must not be confused with defeat, nor should a defenceless people be pitted against a brutal military.

This week's Soapbox speaker is a journalist with Al-Ahali newspaper.

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