Gush Shalom update 22 May / Avnery
Gush Shalom | 22.05.2004 20:57
[] Vigils update
[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness
***
[] Vigils update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
yine la: dnynxez ng` dieniez apey` xtig azl-`aia,
gitd eixeylim anwenez dxbilim nzgilez a6.30 arxa
el` kne pkza wecm
NB: The daily Rafah protest vigils in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem
(usual locations) start at 6.30pm and not as written earlier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness
Hebrew at request & soon at the site
raxiz rl ti awyd `e awxea a`zx
22.5.04
Uri Avnery
The rape of Rafah
The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the
country, has attacked a small Palestinian township on the margin of
the destitute Gaza Strip. Palestinians, both fighters and civilians, are
being killed by the dozen, homes are being destroyed wholesale, the
sight of the fleeing population bring back memories of 1948.
All this - for what?
At first sight, the whole action is absurd. Ariel Sharon has proposed
a unilateral withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, and his original plan
included the evacuation of the "Philadelphi Axis", a narrow buffer zone
cutting Gaza off from Egypt. This means that he does not consider this
entire territory necessary for the security of Israel. According to him,
the Gaza Strip is a military and demographic burden, and the quicker
we get out of it, the better.
Sha'ul Mofaz, a former Chief of Staff and the present Minister of
Defense, went even further. This eminent thinker revealed that Gaza is
not a part of "our patrimony", that the settlements there were a
mistake from the start. This means that the soldiers who were killed
there under his command died for nothing, for a mistake, and every
soldier killed there now is dying in vain.
But now more soldiers are being placed in mortal danger. Dozens
of Palestinians, among them women and children, are being killed for
the mistake.
Does this sound crazy? What evil spirit possessed the Prime
Minister and the Chief of Staff to start a big military operation in a
territory that the army is supposed to leave at any moment?
There must be some method in this madness. What is the real
reason for this onslaught?
The official purpose is to "destroy the tunnels" under the
"Philadelphi Axis". But tunnels have been there for years. The army
boasts of destroying 98 such tunnels in the past, but only one single
tunnel has been discovered in this operation. It is clear that no military
action will put an end to them. Even if the army destroys more and
more Palestinian homes in order to widen the axis - the new tunnels
will just be longer.
The tunnels are a pretext. So, what were the real reasons for this
brutal invasion of a pitiful little town?
The first reason is the simplest: thirst for revenge. The army has
suffered two painful blows, its commanders want to settle the account.
Dozens of Palestinians are killed for 13 of our soldiers, hundreds of
homes demolished for two destroyed personnel carriers.
Add to this the argument of morale. Some senior officers were open
about this: an impressive operation that underlines the superiority of
the Israeli army in order to raise the morale of the soldiers who are still
smarting after the failures.
One can also mention the guilty conscience of the commanders
who sent their soldiers into the killings field riding on huge quantities of
explosives in inadequately armored personnel carriers. In a decent
army the responsible officers - headed by the hapless Chief of Staff -
would have resigned within hours. But in the Israeli army that is not the
way things are. On the contrary, if you fail, you can expect promotion.
From a purely military point of view, the "Philadelphi Axis" (the
name randomly generated by computer) is madness. It cannot be
defended without committing atrocities constituting or bordering on war
crimes. It attracts guerilla fighters as a candle attracts moths. But the
army chiefs who devised it will never admit its folly.
There is another reason for this operation. The generals want to
leave Gaza "with their heads held high". They cannot allow the
Palestinian guerillas to claim to have driven them out by force, as
Hizbullah did in Lebanon.
A childish argument, reflecting a particular military mentality. After
Rafah, the very opposite will happen: the action will confirm to the
Palestinians that their heroic stand has forced the army out. Who will
be able to deny that?
But the directive for the onslaught on Rafah came from the political
leadership, which was in need of a resounding military show, with
much killing and destroying, in order to gratify the primitive emotions of
a part of the public. Simply put: they hurt us, so we hurt them tenfold.
Ten eyes for an eye, ten teeth for a tooth. That's how votes are won.
Ariel Sharon also has a very good personal reason for ordering
such a glorious military campaign in the alleys of Rafah: after his
defeat in the Likud members' referendum, he was stuck in a dead end.
Opponents in his party and his government blocked him in all
directions.
A few days after the Likud vote, Gush Shalom published a political
ad under the headline "Warning!" It read:
"Sharon now resembles a wounded bull.
"A wounded bull is a dangerous animal.
"His plan is dead. He is incapable of dismantling even one single
settlement. He is incapable of getting another plan accepted.
"His only way out is to order a spectacular military adventure.
"There is no limit to the bloody deeds he is capable of now in order
to survive."
This warning was published in Haaretz on May 7. Less than two
weeks later, the operation started.
Besides the generals' thirst for revenge, the action is designed to
serve the personal interests of Sharon. The dramatic events in Rafah fill
all the news bulletins and leave no room for Sharon's political failure.
This restores his image as a resolute leader. Again he is a player on
the global stage. And if the entire world condemns him, this only
serves to raise his stature among his voters.
And the opposition? A week ago, 150 thousand peaceniks
demonstrated in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square to express their disgust with
the present situation and to demand change. Some politicians
appointed themselves as the leaders of these wonderful people and
showered them with garbled and contradictory messages. Yet none of
these speakers cried out this week against the atrocity in Rafah. The
radical peace movements were again left alone in the field. A few hours
after the killing of the unarmed demonstrators in Rafah, these peace
activists were facing the police in the streets of Tel-Aviv, and yesterday
they held a tumultuous demonstration at the roadblock near Rafah.
The invasion of Rafah will, of course, fail, as did the invasion of
Jenin. A regular army, strong as it may be, cannot put down guerilla
fighters who are supported by a desperate population. On the contrary,
the mightier an army is, the smaller are its chances of succeeding. It
can kill dozens and hundreds, destroy whole neighborhoods, drive
masses of people from their homes and cause a small Nakba - nothing
will help. A guerilla war can only be ended by compromise and a
peaceful solution.
A little reminder: the word "guerilla" (little war) was coined in Spain
during the struggle against Napoleon. The French reacted with the
utmost brutality, witnessed for eternity by Goya's shocking painting. It
did not help them. Many historians believe that the Spanish guerilla
stuck a mortal blow to Napoleon's world empire, even before his
disastrous invasion of Russia.
Sharon is no Napoleon, whatever he might believe. He will leave
Rafah as he entered it. Nothing will change. Except one thing: Rafah,
like Jenin, will take its place in the national epic that will sustain
generations of Palestinians to come.
***
# Donations for the families in Rafah whose houses were demolished
can be sent by cheque - in your own currency! - made out to Anat
Matar, 33 Bernstein-Cohen Street, Ramat Hasharon 47213.
Bigger sums can be deposited to the Ta'ayush' bank account:
Bank Hapoalim, acc. no. 396608, Ramat Aviv branch 606
(Please avoid international bank transfer of two-digit sums because of
prohibitive bank fees).
NB: in both cases you should inform Anat Matar about the sum you
have donated, by sending her the details at
# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
Hebrew
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm
English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm
# Sharansky and the New Antisemitism, by Adam Keller -
http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/sharansky.html
More selected articles of The Other Israel May issue accessible via
http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html
Order your one time free sample (hard copy) from
NB: Don't forget to include your postal address
# Against the Wall
*
pekgez aktxim n`inim r"i dgend lz`m rm
`iiai 064-604172
isichel@netvision.net.il
`xiw 050-607034 info@rhr.israel.net
Presence at villages threatened by the wall, contact:
Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel@netvision.net.il
Arik Asherman 050-607034 info@rhr.israel.net
*
Eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories:
http://www.machsomwatch.org
(Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
(internationals throughout OT)
# Refusniks
Constantly-updated refusniks lists:
English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / raxiz - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/
English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / raxiz - http://www.newprofile.org/
Help us free our children from the military prison! (parents of The Five)
For ENGLISH details please click http://www.refuz.org.il/help.html
For HEBREW please click http://www.refuz.org.il/hebrew/help.html
--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (raxiz/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish
In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language
press releases mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request@mailman.gush-shalom.org
+ NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece
of paper to:
Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel
or ask us for charities in your country which receive
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom
Please, add your email address where to send our
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at
request only.
[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness
***
[] Vigils update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
yine la: dnynxez ng` dieniez apey` xtig azl-`aia,
gitd eixeylim anwenez dxbilim nzgilez a6.30 arxa
el` kne pkza wecm
NB: The daily Rafah protest vigils in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem
(usual locations) start at 6.30pm and not as written earlier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness
Hebrew at request & soon at the site
raxiz rl ti awyd `e awxea a`zx
22.5.04
Uri Avnery
The rape of Rafah
The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the
country, has attacked a small Palestinian township on the margin of
the destitute Gaza Strip. Palestinians, both fighters and civilians, are
being killed by the dozen, homes are being destroyed wholesale, the
sight of the fleeing population bring back memories of 1948.
All this - for what?
At first sight, the whole action is absurd. Ariel Sharon has proposed
a unilateral withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, and his original plan
included the evacuation of the "Philadelphi Axis", a narrow buffer zone
cutting Gaza off from Egypt. This means that he does not consider this
entire territory necessary for the security of Israel. According to him,
the Gaza Strip is a military and demographic burden, and the quicker
we get out of it, the better.
Sha'ul Mofaz, a former Chief of Staff and the present Minister of
Defense, went even further. This eminent thinker revealed that Gaza is
not a part of "our patrimony", that the settlements there were a
mistake from the start. This means that the soldiers who were killed
there under his command died for nothing, for a mistake, and every
soldier killed there now is dying in vain.
But now more soldiers are being placed in mortal danger. Dozens
of Palestinians, among them women and children, are being killed for
the mistake.
Does this sound crazy? What evil spirit possessed the Prime
Minister and the Chief of Staff to start a big military operation in a
territory that the army is supposed to leave at any moment?
There must be some method in this madness. What is the real
reason for this onslaught?
The official purpose is to "destroy the tunnels" under the
"Philadelphi Axis". But tunnels have been there for years. The army
boasts of destroying 98 such tunnels in the past, but only one single
tunnel has been discovered in this operation. It is clear that no military
action will put an end to them. Even if the army destroys more and
more Palestinian homes in order to widen the axis - the new tunnels
will just be longer.
The tunnels are a pretext. So, what were the real reasons for this
brutal invasion of a pitiful little town?
The first reason is the simplest: thirst for revenge. The army has
suffered two painful blows, its commanders want to settle the account.
Dozens of Palestinians are killed for 13 of our soldiers, hundreds of
homes demolished for two destroyed personnel carriers.
Add to this the argument of morale. Some senior officers were open
about this: an impressive operation that underlines the superiority of
the Israeli army in order to raise the morale of the soldiers who are still
smarting after the failures.
One can also mention the guilty conscience of the commanders
who sent their soldiers into the killings field riding on huge quantities of
explosives in inadequately armored personnel carriers. In a decent
army the responsible officers - headed by the hapless Chief of Staff -
would have resigned within hours. But in the Israeli army that is not the
way things are. On the contrary, if you fail, you can expect promotion.
From a purely military point of view, the "Philadelphi Axis" (the
name randomly generated by computer) is madness. It cannot be
defended without committing atrocities constituting or bordering on war
crimes. It attracts guerilla fighters as a candle attracts moths. But the
army chiefs who devised it will never admit its folly.
There is another reason for this operation. The generals want to
leave Gaza "with their heads held high". They cannot allow the
Palestinian guerillas to claim to have driven them out by force, as
Hizbullah did in Lebanon.
A childish argument, reflecting a particular military mentality. After
Rafah, the very opposite will happen: the action will confirm to the
Palestinians that their heroic stand has forced the army out. Who will
be able to deny that?
But the directive for the onslaught on Rafah came from the political
leadership, which was in need of a resounding military show, with
much killing and destroying, in order to gratify the primitive emotions of
a part of the public. Simply put: they hurt us, so we hurt them tenfold.
Ten eyes for an eye, ten teeth for a tooth. That's how votes are won.
Ariel Sharon also has a very good personal reason for ordering
such a glorious military campaign in the alleys of Rafah: after his
defeat in the Likud members' referendum, he was stuck in a dead end.
Opponents in his party and his government blocked him in all
directions.
A few days after the Likud vote, Gush Shalom published a political
ad under the headline "Warning!" It read:
"Sharon now resembles a wounded bull.
"A wounded bull is a dangerous animal.
"His plan is dead. He is incapable of dismantling even one single
settlement. He is incapable of getting another plan accepted.
"His only way out is to order a spectacular military adventure.
"There is no limit to the bloody deeds he is capable of now in order
to survive."
This warning was published in Haaretz on May 7. Less than two
weeks later, the operation started.
Besides the generals' thirst for revenge, the action is designed to
serve the personal interests of Sharon. The dramatic events in Rafah fill
all the news bulletins and leave no room for Sharon's political failure.
This restores his image as a resolute leader. Again he is a player on
the global stage. And if the entire world condemns him, this only
serves to raise his stature among his voters.
And the opposition? A week ago, 150 thousand peaceniks
demonstrated in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square to express their disgust with
the present situation and to demand change. Some politicians
appointed themselves as the leaders of these wonderful people and
showered them with garbled and contradictory messages. Yet none of
these speakers cried out this week against the atrocity in Rafah. The
radical peace movements were again left alone in the field. A few hours
after the killing of the unarmed demonstrators in Rafah, these peace
activists were facing the police in the streets of Tel-Aviv, and yesterday
they held a tumultuous demonstration at the roadblock near Rafah.
The invasion of Rafah will, of course, fail, as did the invasion of
Jenin. A regular army, strong as it may be, cannot put down guerilla
fighters who are supported by a desperate population. On the contrary,
the mightier an army is, the smaller are its chances of succeeding. It
can kill dozens and hundreds, destroy whole neighborhoods, drive
masses of people from their homes and cause a small Nakba - nothing
will help. A guerilla war can only be ended by compromise and a
peaceful solution.
A little reminder: the word "guerilla" (little war) was coined in Spain
during the struggle against Napoleon. The French reacted with the
utmost brutality, witnessed for eternity by Goya's shocking painting. It
did not help them. Many historians believe that the Spanish guerilla
stuck a mortal blow to Napoleon's world empire, even before his
disastrous invasion of Russia.
Sharon is no Napoleon, whatever he might believe. He will leave
Rafah as he entered it. Nothing will change. Except one thing: Rafah,
like Jenin, will take its place in the national epic that will sustain
generations of Palestinians to come.
***
# Donations for the families in Rafah whose houses were demolished
can be sent by cheque - in your own currency! - made out to Anat
Matar, 33 Bernstein-Cohen Street, Ramat Hasharon 47213.
Bigger sums can be deposited to the Ta'ayush' bank account:
Bank Hapoalim, acc. no. 396608, Ramat Aviv branch 606
(Please avoid international bank transfer of two-digit sums because of
prohibitive bank fees).
NB: in both cases you should inform Anat Matar about the sum you
have donated, by sending her the details at
# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
Hebrew
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm # Sharansky and the New Antisemitism, by Adam Keller -
http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/sharansky.html More selected articles of The Other Israel May issue accessible via
http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html Order your one time free sample (hard copy) from
NB: Don't forget to include your postal address
# Against the Wall
*
pekgez aktxim n`inim r"i dgend lz`m rm
`iiai 064-604172
isichel@netvision.net.il `xiw 050-607034
info@rhr.israel.net Presence at villages threatened by the wall, contact:
Ivy Sichel 064-604172
isichel@netvision.net.il Arik Asherman 050-607034
info@rhr.israel.net *
Eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories:
http://www.machsomwatch.org (Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php (internationals throughout OT)
# Refusniks
Constantly-updated refusniks lists:
English -
http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/ Hebrew / raxiz -
http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/ English -
http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en Hebrew / raxiz -
http://www.newprofile.org/ Help us free our children from the military prison! (parents of The Five)
For ENGLISH details please click
http://www.refuz.org.il/help.html For HEBREW please click
http://www.refuz.org.il/hebrew/help.html --
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (raxiz/Hebrew) http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English) http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic) with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish
In order to receive Gush Shalom's Hebrew-language
press releases mail to:
gush-shalom-heb-request@mailman.gush-shalom.org + NB: write the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
If you want to support Gush Shalom's activities you can
send a cheque or cash, wrapped well in an extra piece
of paper to:
Gush Shalom
pob 3322
Tel-Aviv 61033
Israel
or ask us for charities in your country which receive
donations on behalf of Gush Shalom
Please, add your email address where to send our
confirmation of receipt. More official receipts at
request only.
Gush Shalom