Re: "Read Edward Said" Re: ADC Mourns Passing of Prof. Edward Said

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

At 7:58 PM -0500 10/17/03, LouPaulsen wrote:
> Attempting to use my words on the occasion of Dr. Said's death to
> score some points

Lou, I just have to wonder why you think about discussion here in
terms of scoring points.  It's not as if we were in one of those fake
debates trying to look good in order to get elected for a political
office.  Discussion at marxmail should be conducted in the spirit of
free collective discussion, especially since marxmail discussion is
unlike discussion in a political organization where votes are taken
at the end of a debate to produce principles binding upon party
members.

At 7:58 PM -0500 10/17/03, LouPaulsen wrote:
> > A closer look at the Palestinian reality tells a somewhat more
> > encouraging story. Recent polls have shown that between them,
> > Arafat and his Islamist opponents (who refer to themselves unjustly
> > as "the resistance") get somewhere between 40 and 45 per cent
> > popular approval. This means that a silent majority of Palestinians
> > is neither for the Authority's misplaced trust in Oslo (or for its
> > lawless regime of corruption and repression) nor for Hamas's
> > violence.
>
> [etc.]
>
> On the other hand, a recent poll indicated that 75% of the population of the
> West Bank and Gaza approved of the Haifa bombing.

You mean the poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and
Survey Research, which was reported in the _Jerusalem Post_:
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>?
Of course, the _Jerusalem Post_ has an interest in making the
headline and lead paragraph emphasize what would score a PR victory
for the Israeli Right:

*****   Oct. 16, 2003
Poll: 75% of Palestinians support Haifa restaurant attack
By LAMIA LAHOUD

75% of Palestinians support the suicide bombing of the Maxim
restaurant in Haifa in which 23 people were killed.

<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>
*****

More interesting information is in the second and third paragraphs of
the same article:

*****   78% of Palestinians believe the US roadmap for peace is dead,
yet a vast majority (85%) want a mutual ceasefire, according to a new
opinion poll released by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey
Research (PSR) in Ramallah.

If the two sides agree on a mutual cessation of violence, 59%
(compared to 50% last June) would support taking measures by the PA
to prevent attacks on Israelis.

<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>
*****

The polling results may seem contradictory to some, but it is not
surprising that a large majority (75%) of Palestinians, if asked, say
that they support particular instances of suicide bombings (most
likely based on sympathies for tragic suicides and their loved ones,
as well as defiance of hypocritical Israeli demands for Palestinian
non-violence) _and yet_ that an even larger majority (85%) want a
mutual ceasefire.  Now, a majority (59%, compared to 50% last June)
even say they would support the PA taking measures to prevent attacks
on Israelis, if only the two sides came to a mutual ceasefire.  I
doubt that Palestinians are hoping that Sharon would actually agree
to any such thing, or that the PA is really capable of extracting
such a mutual agreement from Sharon; in fact, in the same poll, a
large minority of "39% believe that armed confrontations and terror
will not stop and negotiations will not resume soon" (Lamia Lahoud,
"Poll: 75% of Palestinians Support Haifa Restaurant Attack,"
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>).

Palestinians in the occupied territories are clearly tired of an
escalating spiral of violence and counter-violence, which has not
brought them any measurable victories, even symbolic ones, unlike in
Iraq.  At the same time, they feel that Arafat and the PA are corrupt
("82% believes the PA is corrupt,"
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>)
and incapable of exercising effective leadership, even though they
still support Arafat in the face of Israeli assaults ("the popularity
of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has shapely increased from 35% last June
to 50% in October, mainly due to Israeli threats against him,"
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066287147759&p=1008596981749>).

How about Palestinian opinions about Hamas and Islamists?
"Popularity of Fateh increases slightly from 26% last June to 28% in
this poll. Hamas' popularity remains almost unchanged (21%). Total
support for Islamists reaches 29% compared to 31% last June" (The
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, "Palestinian
Public Opinion Poll No. 9," 07-14 October 2003,
<http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2003/p9epressrelease.html>).  Only
a minority of Palestinians support Islamists.  The prevalence of
deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians inside the Green
Line is a case of a minority hijacking the power to steer the course
of Palestinian politics, without widespread popular support for the
political program of the minority in question.

At 7:58 PM -0500 10/17/03, LouPaulsen wrote:
> > Having for a year wrung their collective hands and complained about
> > the absence of a Palestinian peace movement (since when does a
> > militarily occupied people have responsibility for a peace
> > movement?),
>
> (since when indeed!)
>
> > the alleged peaceniks who can actually influence Israel's military
> > have a clear political duty to organise against the occupation
> > right now, unconditionally and without unseemly demands on the
> > already laden Palestinians.
>
> Unconditionally!
>
> And without unseemly demands!

I am not, however, one of those "alleged peaceniks who can actually
influence Israel's military have a clear political duty to organise
against the occupation right now" but who have not done so, because
they condition their organizing on the emergence of a Palestinian
political current to their specifications.  I have been organizing
actions and educational events against the Israeli occupation and
will continue to do so.

Edward Said, an old-fashioned humanist (rather than a postmodern
relativist or a sentimental Third-Worldist), didn't think that
solidarity activists who are _already involved_ in organizing against
the occupation -- including refuseniks and Israeli intellectuals --
should remain uncritical of the strategies and tactics of _all_
Palestinian factions.  If he had, he could not and would not have
made any actual and symbolic alliances with Israeli refuseniks and
intellectuals, American Jewish voices for peace, etc.

In contrast, you are arguing that only uncritical and unconditional
acceptance of _all_ strategies and tactics of _all_ Palestinian
factions -- including Islamists -- would count as true opposition to
the Israeli occupation.  Such a demand makes coalition-building
beyond a very narrow circle impossible.
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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