MIFTAH
Wednesday, 18 September. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Sunday's suicide attack in the Naqab (Negev) in retaliation to Israeli attack against Palestinians in Tulkarem underlines the determination of militant Palestinian factions to maintain a "balance of terror" with the 38-year-old occupation until Israel dismantles the infrastructure of colonialism in the West Bank and Gaza.

As usual, Western countries, especially the United States, condemned the suicide bombing. On the other hand, America has been turning a blind eye to Israel's use of force against the Palestinians which is used in the form of the oppressive occupation. That's wholesale terrorism.

In the not so distant past, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon affirmed the importance of the Jewish colonies as "obstacles to war" and rejected a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Gaza on the grounds it would "only encourage terrorism and increase the pressure upon us".

But like previous withdrawals from Sinai and South Lebanon, Sharon's evacuation of colonists and soldiers demonstrates that, unfortunately, Israel cedes only under fire.

The Israeli government claims that its retreat is a sign of strength not weakness. And Sharon, the architect of the colonies, justifies the demolition of the colonies primarily on demographic grounds.

However, unless Israel was planning to annex Gaza, the number of its inhabitants is by and large irrelevant to Israel's "Jewish democracy".

In reality, the colonies have become too costly in terms of surging security needs, growing instability, and eroding army morale. In the words of one leading Israeli analyst, the Palestinians have "won by points".

After it completes the disengagement, Israel will remain under legal and international pressure to continue its withdrawals beyond the four isolated colonies it evacuated in the West Bank and replaced with army bases.

But Sharon is expected to exploit the Palestinians' preoccupation in the impoverished Gaza to freeze the peace process and to expand Israel's control over the ten-fold larger West Bank.

Israel's government has already approved the separation/segregation wall around the colony of Ma'ali Adumim on Palestinian land only two days after its evacuation from Gaza.

If the Bush administration goes along, the Palestinians would be forced to do something.

The Palestinian leadership understands that an authority that is unable to defend its people loses all legitimacy in their eyes and opens the way for other sources of legitimacy, notably resistance.

And although they have made clear that they could honour the ceasefire agreement reached with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian armed factions are tending to transfer their operation into the West Bank.

According to Israel's leading paper, Haaretz, a third Intifada "could speed up" Israel's evacuation from 90 per cent of the West Bank.

Unprecedented

Sharon has warned of unprecedented retaliation if the Palestinians resort to violence. But Israel's 38 years use of force has failed to deter the Palestinians.

Furthermore, Sharon has been warned by his attorney general Menachem Mazuz that if the military retaliates against Palestinian population centres, Israel would be guilty of "war crimes".

Israel's dilemma is complicated by the close proximity between Israelis and Palestinians that renders its advanced conventional and nuclear capability practically obsolete.

Instead, the balance of power in the miniscule territories is determined by mounting number of Palestinians ready to die for their homeland and declining number of Israelis ready to defend the occupation project. Gaza is a living example of that reality.

Colonial powers stronger and more determined than Israel have all lost to weaker but highly motivated resistance movements costing millions of lives. The trouncing of the Israeli occupation is only a matter of time.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Palestinian resistance I mean the basic right to fight back constant injustice is motivated not be despair, but by the hope of freedom.

Suicide bombings as the one on Sunday, might be effective in the short term, but they are morally wrong and counterproductive in the long term.

Having said that, the moral burden remains heavily placed on the shoulders of those who practice state terrorism in the form of military occupation.

A couple of years ago, four former Israeli security service heads warned that Israel was "on the verge of a catastrophe" as a result of the Intifada.

Their assessment was not a military one per se, rather a general one that encompasses the economic, moral and security spheres.

You can be sure another uprising on the West Bank will do greater harm to Israel and the Palestinians than the previous too. Those who cannot stand the heat will leave first. My guess is it will be Israel.

But with one important condition; any Palestinian resistance must be limited to the West Bank both in terms of scope and endgame and balanced with an open hand for peaceful coexistence.

Unlike Gaza, South Lebanon and Sinai, the West Bank is Israel's last and narrowest defence line. Withdrawing from there could only be the culmination of international intervention and torturous internal power struggle.

Palestinian resistance and international pressures are widening the rift in the Israeli society between the secular business-driven costal communities that flourish on stability, peace and open frontiers and the religious and extremists segments that thrives conflict, tensions and the idea of a Greater Land of Israel.

Israelis who seek normality and prosperity for their country have already won the battle of Gaza.

Now, they must act quickly to ensure that its evacuation is only a prelude to West Bank withdrawal in order to prevent the outbreak of another more deadly Intifada.

 
 
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