BLOCKADING ARAFAT MEANS BLOCKADING PEACEr>
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BLOCKADING ARAFAT MEANS BLOCKADING PEACEr> |
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Posted by Gush Shalom on January 27, 19102 at 16:39:20:
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
BLOCKADING ARAFAT MEANS BLOCKADING PEACEr>
Gush Shalom ad published in Ha'aretz, January 25, 2001
Palestinian Women weeping over the ruins of their homes.
Rafah, yesterday
"Haaretz" 11/01/02
Uri Avnery
26.01.02
Napoleon at the Gates of Ramallah
In his epic "War and Peace", Tolstoy describes the battle of Borodino, one of
the cruelest in history, in which Napoleon opened the way to Moscow. In the
middle of the terrible battle, the hero of the book looks for the Russian
commander, Kutusov. He finds him sitting on a chair on the top of a hill,
looking calmly at the battle and doing nothing.
The hero is, of course, amazed by this inactivity, until the Russian general
explains that at this stage he has nothing more to do. The battle is a clash
between two great human masses, and the stronger and more determined mass will
win.
I was reminded of the scene from the book this week when I visited Yasser
Arafat in Ramallah. His office was quiet, activity low-key. The Palestinian
leader was calm, more so than I have seen him for a long time. The trembling of
his limbs has disappeared, and so had the tired look. He reminded me of our
first meeting in besieged Beirut, July 1982, in the middle of the battle. He
was in a jovial mood when he led us to the window and showed us the Israeli
tanks which are stationed a hundred meters away, their cannons targeted on him.
Some of the dozen senior journalists who accompanied our Gush Shalom delegation
got the impression that he has given up, that he "has resigned himself to his
fate". If they had met Kutusov in that battle, they would probably also have
said that the he was finished, a beaten general resigned to defeat.
The Israeli-Palestinian war, now 120 years old, is reaching one of its decisive
stages. Two great masses are confronting each other: an irresistible force and
an immovable object.
The Israeli commander, Ariel Sharon, knows exactly what he wants. All the
columnists who tell the public that he is temporizing, that he doesn't know
what he wants, that he has no plan etc. just do not know the man. A normal
person like Yossi Beilin is quite unable to grasp his way of thinking.
Sharon is acting in a consistent, determined and logical way to execute his
master-plan. For decades now he has thought that he is ordained by history to
implement real Zionism - one that aims to conquer all of Eretz-Israel, to
cleanse it of the local population and to cover it with settlements.
In pursuing this historic mission Sharon is ruthless and merciless. Rivers of
blood do not deter him, the number of casualties (theirs and ours) is just one
item in his calculations. He acts cautiously, uses ruses and does not shrink
from committing war crimes.
He knows that he does not have much time left, and that he must use the
remaining time in order to destroy the Palestinian people as a political
factor. To achieve this, he has to break thir leadership, defeat their armed
forces, smash their will and ability to resist.
What is the final aim?
The minimum: To imprison the Palestinians in several enclaves, each one cut off
from the others and from the world at large, each one surrounded by
settlements, by-pass roads and the army. In these big prison camps, the
Palestinians will be allowed to "manage their own affaires," supplying cheap
labor and a captive market. He does not care if they are called "a Palestinian
state".
The maximum: To exploit a war situation or a world crisis to expel all
Palestinians (including those who are Israeli citizens) from the country.
Sharon is quite capable of instigating a war to create such an opportunity. He
has only contempt for the people around him, who are unable to think in such
historic terms.
Under the leadership of Sharon this great mass is confronting the opposing
mass – the Palestinians. They cannot compete with the attacking force in any
field but one: the capability to absorb punches. The Palestinian national
strategy is summarized by one word: Summud, steadfastness. After the terrible
lesson of 1948, the Palestinians know that this is a fight for their life – the
life of the Palestinian people and the life of every single Palestinian man and
woman. This generates a force of resistance that amazes Sharon's generals, as
the Russian resistance amazed Napoleon's marshals.
Yasser Arafat symbolizes this ability more than anyone else. Even those
Palestinians (mainly Western educated members of the intelligentsia) who used
to criticize his style of management know that there is nobody like him in an
existential crisis. The man sitting in Ramallah facing the tanks is the
personification of the Palestinian determination to defend their national
existence in their homeland, whatever the price.
The Israeli Napoleon does not understand the Palestinians, as the original
Napoleon did not understand the Russians. He and his followers believe that
Arafat is an isolated, crippled, "irrelevant" figure. They cannot understand
that precisely in such a situation, Arafat is stronger and more influential
than ever.
A propos the original Napoleon: he won the battle of Borodino and entered
Moscow as a glorious victor. But a few weeks later the same Kutusov defeated
him decisively. Napoleon had to flee back home, leaving behind him the remnants
of a beaten army, dying of hunger and cold.
[The author has closely followed the career of Sharon for four decades. Over
the years, he has written three extensive biographical essays about him, two
(1973, 1981) with his cooperation.]
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