The Palestinian movement

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

CounterPunch, June 19, 2002

The Road Forward for 
the Palestinian Movement
by Lenni Brenner

(clip)

The Palestinian movement is at a crossroad. Arafat is a disaster, and so
are suicide movements. It is up to the Palestinian intelligentsia to
present an alternative to Arafat and Hamas & Co. And that can only be done
on the basis of a thought out long range political program, for a
democratic secular bi-nat ional Palestine/Israel, and a political strategy,
extending from Arab general strikes and running in Israeli elections, thru
running in elections and/or Said's Constituent Assembly in the Palestine
Authority. 

Nor is it possible to ignore miserable conditions in much of the
Palestinian diaspora. Arafat isn't the only Arab plague afflicting
Palestinians. Many regimes treat Palestinian communities as pariahs
legally, while accommodating to US oil imperialism. Lebanon immediately
comes to mind as denying legal equality. 

Political strategy must determine democratic secularist policy towards each
and every militarist move by any and all players, Arab or Israeli. That
requires secularists, of both nationalities and all religions or none, to
go beyond lecturing Hamas for its military and political sins, to
mobilizing the masses, where ever possible including Hamas' ranks, for
disciplined peaceful mass marches against the occupation, that can call to
the world for aid in the struggle against oppression. 

Von Clausewitz insisted that the defense had a natural advantage in war.
This applies fully in Palestine/Israel. Even in Napoleon's age, von
Clausewitz emphasized the importance of world opinion. It is for defenders
because it is basically civilian. 

When Zionist troops oppress Palestinians, the world takes increasing note.
But that same civilian public sympathizes with Israel when Palestinian
bombers blow up teenagers in a pizza parlor. 

Keep uppermost in mind that Israel is armed by Washington. If you fight
Zionism in Palestine, and don't have a political-military strategy designed
to win Americans over to demanding an immediate halt to all military aid to
Israel, you guarantee Zionism an unending supply of weapons to defeat you. 

Palestinian democratic secularists, world-wide, and their democratic
secular Israeli counterparts, must set up an emergency internet conference
to discuss Edward Said's latest call. Candid discussion will help publicize
their ideas within the broader Palestinian community, and the new movement
can determine whether to run in Arafat's election or indeed set up a
provisional counter government, or both. 

Arafat is now in no position to stop a determined effort to run a
democratic secular slate. To do so would lose him his credibility with
Europe. 

For Israel, from now on, with the eyes of the world on it, to ban a
Palestinian/Israeli list, calling for a secular bi-national state, would be
a world PR disaster. 

Israel's last - and best - card is to present itself abroad, particularly
in America, as the victim of Kamikazis. If it refuses to allow a list to
call for bi-nationalism and America's "wall of separation between church
and state," Zionism's hold over the public will collapse here, with
enormous repercussions in Israel and the Arab world. 

Last year, I challenged Steven Cohen, a Zionist scholar, from the floor, at
a forum. I quoted the 12/14/81 NY Times: 

"The military relationship between South Africa and Israel, never fully
acknowledged by either country, has assumed a new significance with the
recent 10 day visit by Israel's Defense minister, Ariel Sharon, to South
African forces in Namibia along the border with Angola.... Mr. Sharon...
reported that South Africa needed more modern weapons if it is to fight
successfully against Soviet-Supplied troops." 

Cohen's response was that "talking about Israel and South Africa is always
a show-stopper. But we're not facing the African National Congress." 

This was his meeting, he had the last word from the podium. In that
context, his answer was perfect. But the answer to his perfect answer is to
create a Palestinian/Israeli version of the ANC. B follows A. If you
denounce Israeli apartheid, where is your ANC? 

Study it, copy its successes, learn from its failings. Palestinian
intellectuals have hitherto been increasingly successful in
media-protesting against Zionism. But that is still in the realm of words.
Words, a viable program, are more crucial now then ever. However it is time
to walk the talk, to organize and mobilize Palestinians and progressive
Israelis for equality and victory. 

Expect no miracles. Even with such an organization, with a correct
strategy, there is a long struggle before victory. But without such an
organization, there is a long struggle ahead, without victory. 

Lenni Brenner lives in New York City. He can be reached at: BrennerL21@xxxxxxx

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner0619.html

===

Atlantic Monthly, July-August 2002

Comment
A Brief History of Yasir Arafat 
The PLO leader is a terrible administrator but a brilliant image crafter
by David Brooks 
 
..... 
 
Yasir Arafat claims that he was born in Jerusalem, but he was actually born
in Cairo. He claims to belong to the prominent Jerusalem family of
Husseini, but he is at best only distantly related to it. He claims that he
turned down a chance to go to the University of Texas, but according to one
biographer, the Palestinian-born writer Saïd K. Aburish, it is highly
unlikely that he was ever accepted. He claims to have disabled ten Israeli
armored personnel carriers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but Israel didn't
even have ten APCs in the sector he was in. He claims to have made millions
as a businessman in Kuwait, but this, too, is almost certainly untrue.

(clip)

He and his army have brought disorder wherever they have settled. In 1969
they based themselves in Jordan, where they soon began terrorizing the
local people, running extortion rackets against businesses, and undermining
the Jordanian regime. Black September followed in 1970: Jordan's King
Hussein launched a huge and bloody war against the Palestinians, killing
thousands and leading to the expulsion of Arafat and his army. The same
sort of thing happened in Lebanon a decade later, with Palestinian thugs
looting banks and destroying the local government. The Syrians finally came
in to restore order, in what became known as Black June. Arafat has somehow
survived his many crises?battles with the Jordanians, the Syrians, the
Egyptians, the Lebanese Christians, and, of course, the Israelis. And each
time, instead of being held even partly responsible for the widespread
suffering his actions have caused his people, he has been lionized as the
figure who will someday bring deliverance from that suffering. This is a
monumental political achievement.

After the Oslo accords were signed, leaving Arafat in charge of
administering much of the West Bank and Gaza, his armies began to prey on
Palestinians, as they had on Jordanians and Lebanese years before. He would
not fire those responsible?either because he doesn't like firing people or
because he feared alienating certain sectors of the Palestinian populace.
At the same time, he tried to control every detail of Palestinian
life?insisting, for example, that he personally review individual building
permits and decide whose house could have an addition. All this subverted
efficient administration, and his popularity plummeted.

The immediate threat to Arafat's control during this period did not come
from Arab leaders. The problem was money. Arafat was chronically short of
the funds he needed to maintain his bureaucratic machine, and the problem
was getting worse. Many Palestinians believe that he participated at Oslo
only because, having supported Iraq in the Gulf War, he had alienated his
financial backers (chiefly Saudi Arabia and some European governments) and
had little choice. He was thus, they argue, forced into signing what he and
most Palestinians regarded as a terrible deal. It may be that the way to
isolate Arafat politically?an action that is surely necessary if a workable
settlement is ever to be reached in the Middle East?is not to attack him
head-on, providing him with yet another of the near-death experiences that
seem only to recharge him. The solution may instead be to choke off his
money supply?the one thing that props up his authority in times of calm. 

full: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/07/brooks.htm

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org



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