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Dear Friends:
In the Knesset debate in October 2004 over Sharon’s “unilateral withdrawal from Gaza”, Fuad Ben Eliezer of the Israeli “Labour” Party stated that, after the “unilateral withdrawal”, if any resistance activity emanates from Gaza, then the IDF “would not leave one stone”.
At the beginning of this month, it was reported that “the army is moving forward based on a working plan that it is nearing another round of bloody violence with the Palestinians.” www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1148482108240&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Just 3 weeks ago, Internal Security Minister Dichter put forward his plan to “reoccupy parts of Gaza” and “turn Beit Hanoun into a ghost town.”
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3258534,00.html
Professor Robert Brym reported on an exchange he had had recently with internationally-renowned Israeli Professor Yoram Dinstein. “So,” I suggested, “you conclude that the Palestinians understand only power?” To which he replied, “Even that they don’t understand.”
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/
Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150192149593&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
From the most brutal Zionists, to the most cultured, the strategic goal is, in the words of the late unlamented General Rafael Eitan, “to close the Palestinians up so that they scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
There is no possibility of peaceful coexistence between a Zionist state and a Palestinian national movement. One must subdue the other. Slicing the baby in half is not a realistic option.
The international and Israeli starvation blockade was obviously the prelude to military action, and had nothing to do with “punishing” the Hamas-led PLC.
The IDF has already begun its reprisal, according to its well-known modus operandi — destroying infrastructure, beginning with bridges and electric power stations. The IDF says that this is to prevent the captors of Corporal Gilad Shalit from moving him around. The truth is that this is large-scale state terror against the Gazan Palestinian population and its refugees. We have seen it all before, in Lebanon, and everywhere else.
It has nothing to do with saving Corporal Shalit’s life. That would require a different set of tactics. His is another life that is expendable for the cause of Zionist domination.
The enduring fact is that the raid on the Kerem Shalom tank base has dealt Zionism a political blow. The raid cannot easily be denounced as “terrorism”, and cannot easily be dismissed with the perennial slander of “anti-semitism”. Clearly, the attack on one of the military installations that have been bombarding the people of the Gaza Strip for weeks was not “revenge” for the beach atrocity, and cannot be belittled as “martyrdom” or “jihad”. It was an overtly justifiable act of self-defence by oppressed people. Furthermore, the demand to release female and juvenile political prisoners was reasonable.
Whenever the oppressed display skill and cunning and dedication, the oppressors are in a panic. Enough to read the Israeli press to understand the magnitude of the political blow caused by the Kerem Shalom raid. This action is similar, in kind, to the destruction of the Merkava tanks on the “Philadelphi” route, and to the hang-glider raid on the Nahal base (one of the triggers of the Intifada that began in December 1987). In magnitude, it comes close to the scale of the October 1973 Yom Kippur sneak attack and the breach of the Bar-Lev Line. The Karameh battle of 1968 also comes to mind, and should now bear some lessons for the defenders of Gaza, as should Jenin 2002.
The staying power of Zionism is based on the myth of Israeli invincibility (combined with Jewish victimhood). Challenge these, deeply, and Zionism falls apart. “Invincibility” has suffered a blow. The political answer to the “victimhood” myth is the forthright proposal and forthright promise of a democratic, secular republic in all of Palestine.
In these circumstances, one wonders what Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh hope to achieve with their recently-negotiated agreement.
The only rational approach now is the united front to defend the people of Palestine, that must be organized diligently in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, and everywhere else.
Regards,
Henry Lowi
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