Palestine-Israel Conflict

Do the Zionists know what they want?

SINCE THE ARAB SUMMIT conference at Amman concluded in March 2001 with a set of ineffective resolutions, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza have been at the receiving end of Israeli aggression. Israeli forces have been targeting houses, offices and hospitals with bulldozers, machine guns, tanks, artillery, gunboats and Apache helicopters. By attacking the offices and headquarters of some Palestinian National Authority (PNA) security agencies as well, they are evidently displaying their desperation.

Israeli's punitive measures are obviously aimed at forcing the PNA to contain this situation in Palestinian towns, villages and camps in their control to comply with Israeli conditions for the resumption of 'peace' talks. Perhaps the Israelis believe they can to the PNA what they did to the PLO earlier in Lebanon.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the early 1980s inflicted a series of defeats on the PLO, all the way from the south of Lebanon to Beirut. The Israeli campaign succeeded eventually in the expulsion of the PLO from the whole of Lebanon.

The brutal use of force against PNA institutions in the West Bank and Gaza is probably aimed at convincing the PNA that it has no option but to comply. Obviously, the objective of the Israelis could not be the destruction of the PNA altogether. It would be insane to do so without securing an alternative partner in the urgently needed 'pacification' process. Such an alternative is unavailable for no Palestinian today would want to be seen as doing Israel's dirty work. Today, even the PNA is under enormous pressure from the Palestinian public as well as from its own Fatah cadres to give in no more to the Israelis.

Having failed to quell the first intifada, which erupted in December 1987, 'peacemaking' has, since the early 1990s, been an Israeli requirement. But Israel, thanks to unconditional US support on the one hand and PNA acquiescence, on the other, has grown increasingly arrogant and choosy. It has been enabled, at least until the eruption of the second intifada, September 2000 to dictate the terms of peace.

But the Israelis delude themselves if they think that the escape from their predicament lies in doing to the PNA today what they did to the PLO yesterday. The Palestinians who are bombed in Gaza and the West Bank are not guests in somebody else's land.

Besides having nowhere else to go, they definitely intend not to allow Israel to uproot them from the land. Had the PNA been the source of Israel's discomfort, and getting rid of it been a solution now, Israel would have easily done away with the Palestinian authority. The confrontation is with the people who have been there all along and who had triggered both intifadas.

Furthermore, the PNA is not composed merely of the Tunisian PLO, Yasser Arafat and his close associates, that came into the land as a result of the peacemaking. The local cadres of Fatah, who have been a principal element of both intifadas, constitute the backbone of the PNA without whom it simply has no existence.

In as much as the PLO has contributed to the corruption of social, political and economic aspects of life in the West Bank and Gaza, the institutions it has set up for the purpose of 'peacemaking' have gradually taken on domestic characteristics and dimensions. As such they cannot be easily extricated from local life.

What the Israel seems to need more time to learn is that no matter what oppressive measures it adopts against the Palestinians, terror only begets terror. In view of their experience in Lebanon, one would have expected Israel to act wisely. But not only do Israelis find difficulty in understanding this but the West seems more confused than ever. It is not because of lack of coverage of the events in Palestine, but because of lack of well informed objective analysis of these events.

The western media, which reflect western concern that the 'peace process' may have completely collapsed, cannot afford to ignore developments in Palestine. However, they usually report savagery in the Holy Land with little, if any, meaningful explanation. The merciless, sometimes indiscriminate, Israeli bombardment of the civilian Palestinians population, besieged in their own land, is alleged to be in response to Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets.

Not only is little information given about the roots of the conflict, but very little attention is paid to the fact that Israeli military occupation is what compels, in the very first place, the Palestinians to rise in their defense. No mention is made that despite seven years of 'peacemaking', the Palestinians have continued to be killed almost on daily basis, their houses demolished and their land confiscated.

No reference is made to the fact that foreign Zionists settlers, who are a constant reminder to the Palestinians of the theft perpetrated against them, continue to violate Palestinian rights with impunity with the blessing of Israeli politicians and protection of Israeli occupation forces.

There indeed is a vicious cycle of resistance and rebellion, repression and suppression, which is termed as Palestinian 'violence' and Israeli 'security operation'. Especially since the end of September 2000, Israelis and Palestinians have been locked in one of the most unconventional battles in the history of the region. Provoked by occupation, humiliation and oppression, Palestinians fight back throwing stones at first, but eventually resorting to the only true lethal weapon available to them, human bombs.

Zionist leaders, under pressure from a confused and panicking public that has been promised security and peace of mind, retaliate with a barrage of lethal weapons from their formidable arsenal. Israel has been provided, unconditionally, with the most advanced US gifted death and destruction technology.

The pathetic response to Palestinian suffering and Israeli savagery, the Amman summit had nothing to offer beyond a few words of sympathy and a decision to pay the PNA a few million dollars a month. The monetary gesture is to enable the Palestinian authorities to pay the salaries of its employees, who have not been paid for months because Israel withheld tax receipts due to PNA as stipulated in previous agreements.

Not much more could the Palestinians expect from the Arab leaders who, as usual, came to the summit carrying with them the bitter experiences of the past decades. Perhaps those who have only recently joined the political club in the Arab regions, namely King Abdullah of Jordan and President Bashar of Syria, were not burdened by the past.

The other were so divided over so many issues that apart from speaking one language, literally speaking, they seemed to have nothing in common. Arabs may hope for a better Arab summit meeting when more new faces occupy the front seats in the conference hall. This is not likely to take long since most of the present archaic occupants are passengers waiting to take the next train out of this station.

No better example explains the burden of the past, which today translates into personal incompatibility and conflict-on-sight, than the impasse over the question of sanctions on Iraq.

However, on the issue of Palestine, it is not this burden of bitterness and hatred that is standing in the way of meaningful action. Arab governments continue to live in state of utter fear of Israel and the US.

The ruling elite in every Arab country has become so modernist that faith pays no role in their thinking. They are so captivated by the prevailing world order that nothing else contributes to their vision. Thus is the increasingly widening gap between the masses and those who govern them in the Arab region.

In spite of a century of modernisation - a combination of both secularisation and westernisation - the Muslim peoples of the world do not share the fears of their rulers. They look up to examples of history both ancient and recent, were truth and justice won the battle against falsehood and oppression - despite the seeming inequality of opportunity and apparent imbalance of power. In a nutshell, the masses are eager to fight while the rulers hate the hear the word 'jihad'.

The plight of the Palestinians is made worse by the lack of official Arab action in their support. Arab rulers, in their summit conference as well as in various political manoeuvrings, are primarily concerned with preventing a spill over that may lead to an escalation, which may in turn end up in a regional conflict.

Morally vanquished, they do not doubt for a minute Israel has the power to win any war against them, even if they were united. No wonder many Israelis feel reassured that the Arabs outside Palestine pose no real threat to them.

The Israeli attack on a Syrian radar station in Lebanon last month, aimed at forcing Syria to emasculate Hezbullah, could no have taken place had the Arabs not been making only conciliatory gestures to Israel. There is hardly much Syria can do on its own. Israel knows this only too well. Other Arabs may join the Americans and Europeans in calling on all parties to exercise self restraint, but no more.

Israel could easily be deterred if the Arab countries bordering Palestine were to relax their border control. Millions of Arabs and Muslims would be willing to offer themselves for what they regards as the noblest of all causes. Experience has proven beyond doubt that Israeli military is ineffective in face of guerilla warfare.

If Arab armies are not ready to deter Israel yet, opening the borders to those longing for martyrdom will make life impossible for the occupation forces. Then an only then may Israel's Zionists regime think twice - perhaps more than twice - before it attacks Palestinian or Arab targets.