Palestinians need to brace themselves for the worst

By Azzam Tamimi

LONDON (JP): Vulnerable, exposed and disempowered, the Palestinians under Israeli occupation pray that the Arabs, the Muslims and the rest of the world will come to their aid having recognized the seriousness of the situation in Palestine.

Perhaps the most distressing thing for the Palestinians amid all the suffering is the Arab inaction and even lack of interest.

Once, Palestine was the Arab cause and prior to that it was the Islamic cause. Now, the Palestinians feel abandoned, though their predicament is not exclusively their own making.

While Israel's rhetoric and acts of violence escalate, the Arabs around Palestine continue to hide their heads in the sand and there is no shortage of sand in the Arab land.

In spite of undeniable support and sympathy on the part of the Arab masses for Palestine and the Palestinians, these masses are unable to persuade their governments to shift from inaction to action.

What should the Palestinians do in such circumstances? They are no match for the Israeli war machinery. While suffering due to the Israeli occupation authorities, stringent controls are imposed on their movement, trade and communication by their Arab brothers across the borders.

Worst of all has been the role played by those individuals and agencies who have collaborated, from among the Palestinians themselves, with their oppressors, the Israelis.

Many of the assassinations carried out by Israeli secret agents, the so-called Arabist units, might not have succeeded without the collaboration of Palestinian traitors.

Notwithstanding, the Palestinians who live under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank have no option but to remain steadfast and to resist the persistent Israeli attempts to drive them away. Such resistance will not be pain-free.

More than ever before, the Israeli public is moving toward uprooting the Palestinians from their homeland. Hence the election of Sharon as prime minister of Israel, in spite of his war crimes record and overt anti-Arab, anti-Muslim views.

In response to my July article on Palestine, I received two messages from Israelis who read it with seeming disgust.

What both respondents agree on is denying the Palestinians the right to exist and despising Islam and the Muslims. One wrote:

"You fail to mention, Palestinians tell these suicide bombers, that when they kill Jews, they will go to heaven and be with 72 virgins. Can you tell me another religion, so savage and evil.

"Then you say, how Israel robbed the Palestinians of [their] homeland. What homeland? There was never in history any state called Palestine. The Palestinians never controlled or governed any land before 1993.

The Palestinians are really unwanted Arabs from Egypt and Syria, who immigrated to the land from 1831 to 1947. Palestine is a fake invented Roman name, which the Romans named after the Greek Philistines. The Palestinians are totally unrelated to the Philistines."

The other wrote: "Judea and Samaria and all of Jerusalem are liberated Israeli Lands. Tell us when did it ever belong to Palestinians?

"Answer: Never. It was never a Palestinian land to begin with, so your question is invalid. The Palestinians never governed or controlled any land before 1993 ... please tell me one Palestinian president before 1993 ...

"The Palestinians want a capital which they never had, in a country that never existed. The Palestinians are really unwanted Arabs from Egypt and Syria, who immigrated to the land from 1831 to 1947."

This reader repeated the other: "Palestine is a fake invented Roman name ... "The Philistines are totally unrelated to the current day Palestinians. Israel existed 1,500 years, before Muhammad was born.

"Besides Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the entire Middle East and North Africa was stolen from the native peoples by Muhammad in the 7th century. Anyone that resisted Muhammad, had their heads cut off.

"Look at Islamic countries and ... Sharia laws. It's a brutal, violent and intolerant religion. There is a primary historical fact, that must be established now. There has never been ... a civilization, entity, or a nation referred to as 'Palestine.'

"There was never a Palestinian tribe, and there was never a Palestinian country in the land of Israel to begin with!"

Maybe not all Jews think in the way these two do. But no doubt what is expressed in their messages is a reflection of the Zionist ideology. Today, it is defended and supported by a majority of Jews and a minority of Christians who accept these myths as facts.

Zionists cherish the idea, which no respectable historian would entertain, that since the destruction of the Second Temple at around 70 AD Palestine remained mysteriously unpopulated waiting for them to come back and claim it as a divine right as God's chosen people. It is an idea that cannot be debated around a respectable discussion table. You simply cannot reach a middle ground on an idea that is illogical and unfair.

By virtue of the exposure of Zionist beliefs, especially since Sharon took over, it is only now that some of those who once thought they could talk sense into the minds of Zionists in the hope of reaching some middle ground with them have begun to realize the gravity of their ill-judgment.

The Palestinians need to brace themselves for the worst, which is yet to come. After all, Israel is no ordinary occupying power and its colonialization of Palestine is no conventional imperialist move, though it shares many of the features of European colonial endeavors.

Past colonial projects ended with the occupiers withdrawing to their motherlands, be it Britain, France, Italy, Holland, Portugal or Spain.

In the case of Palestine, Israelis are not comfortable with withdrawing even from an inch of the land they occupy. For in spite of Arab weakness, the Israelis can never feel secure if limited to a strip of land along the Mediterranean coast.

They are haunted by the prospect of being flushed out completely. Where would they withdraw to? Some of them may realize by now that they have no future except as a Jewish community living in the region as some Jewish communities lived there before for more than thirteen centuries. But this clearly means an end to Zionism and an end to Israel.

As the Israelis feel more threatened and vulnerable they act less orderly, less predictably and much more desperately. But why should the Israelis be made more vulnerable if this is likely to backfire on the Palestinians?

This is the enigma of the vicious cycle initiated by the Israelis. Their policies, ambitions and lack of confidence, which is most probably the outcome of a mixture of inherent guilt and insecurity, are expressed eventually in one way: oppressive action against the Palestinians, the victims of their occupation. This is the nature of tyranny.

Politicians in the Arab region, in Europe and in the United States have constantly warned against the danger of war engulfing the region as a result of the inability on the part of both Palestinians and Israelis to resolve their dispute.

But war is actually going on. What else would describe what the Israelis are doing? It is a war, but one that is between a military superpower and a beleaguered civilian population.

The Palestinians have no option but to take on the Israelis and meet their challenge. It is true they have every right to be dismayed by Arab and Muslim lack of response to Israel's atrocities.

However, no one will ever come to their aid, and coming generations will not forgive them, if they do not prove to be willing to make the utmost of sacrifice for a cause that, in spite of shortage of support today, is a sublime and most honorable one. Nothing justifies giving up the struggle in anticipation of an Arab or Muslim renaissance of some sort.

The Palestinians are not short of means and methods that will deter the Israelis. If the message Israelis send to Palestinian young men is that they are destined to lose their youth and have their lives taken away from them by Israeli snipers or Israeli Arabist units or Israeli apache helicopters, the response will be one of defiance rather than capitulation.

Israeli politicians and strategists are clearly mistaken if they think that the Palestinians are afraid of war or that they would prefer a humiliating life to an honorable death.

Dr. Azzam Tamimi is researcher and director of the London- based Institute of Islamic Political Thought.