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July 13, 2001
Israel Sharpens Its Axe
By Edward Said
An ominous air is overtaking the Middle
East, now that Ariel Sharon has come to and gone from the United
States. A striking resemblance to the period before Israel's
1982 invasion of Lebanon has undoubtedly occurred to anyone
with a memory long enough to recall what happened then. The
same war criminal, Sharon (who should soon be sharing Milosevic's
fate in the Hague) came to see the then Secretary of State  Alexander Haig and then went back with what
he informed everyone was an American green light. Thereafter,
his armies invaded Lebanon. And sure enough, he did the same
thing this time with the inexperienced Colin Powell and the
intellectually disadvantaged George Bush. Both those men have,
in the space of less than a month, totally adopted the Israeli
lie that the main problem is "the violence," by which
it is automatically assumed that violence is what Palestinians
practice while restraint is Israel's contribution. So all Sharon
now has to do is to invade areas under the control of the Palestinian
Authority and then claim that this is being done with restraint
and US approval in order to safeguard Israeli security. Perhaps
Colin Powell's visit to Palestine and his suggestion that international
monitors might supervise the truce will complicate matters slightly,
but Sharon's mindset doesn't allow for more than invasion and
destruction so far as Palestinians are concerned.
By now it has become clear
that, because Western audiences are so poorly informed, Israeli
public officials can say anything, including out-and-out lies.
Last week a major television debate in the US between PA Minister
Nabil Shaath and Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg confirmed this
sad fact and demonstrated yet again that, for whatever reason,
the Authority and its spokesmen seem unable to understand what
is happening. Burg sat there and brazenly manufactured one falsehood
after another -- that as a democrat and a peace lover he was
concerned there was no real Palestinian peace camp; that Israel
is trying ever so hard to remain calm while Palestinian terrorists
(encouraged by the Authority) threatened his daughter, no less,
with brutal killing; that Israel has always wanted peace; that
Arafat controls everything; that Shaath and he (Burg) are exactly
the same except that he, Burg, is able to influence Sharon in
restraint but Shaath cannot influence Arafat; and on and on.
All of it making the point, in the style of classical propaganda
(to repeat a lie often enough is to believe it), that Israel
is victimised by Palestinians, that it wants peace, and that
it is waiting for Palestinians to catch up with its magnanimity
and restraint.
To this farrago of confections
Shaath seemed to have no answer, except to say plaintively that
Palestinians also want peace; that they want the Mitchell plan
(as if that rubbishy piece of AIPAC-constructed nonsense had
already become scripture: have Palestinian leaders like Abed
Rabbo, Shaath, Erekat and the others forgotten that as senators,
Mitchell and Warren Rudman, who were almost half the committee
that produced the stupid report, were among the highest paid
members of the Israeli lobby? Obviously yes); that they are
trying to be restrained; that they long for the return of Oslo;
and on and on. Rarely have I seen such a concentration of Israeli
mendacity received with such cringing servility by Palestinians,
and all this while millions of Palestinians are suffering the
worst possible collective punishment.
When people like Shaath get
a precious opportunity to deal with a criminal like Burg, they
should not once let him forget that Israel is indulging in horrendous
war crimes, people by the million are unable to travel, eat,
get health care, 500 people have been killed, 2,000 houses have
been demolished, 50,000 trees have been uprooted, thousands of
acres of land have been confiscated, settlements continue --
that all this has occurred during a "peace process."
Even a normally excellent and reliable spokesman like Ghassan
Khatib has been infected with the virus of talking about violence
and the Mitchell report and totally failing to mention the occupation,
the occupation, the occupation, the occupation. Can't these
redoubtable spokesmen of ours concentrate on the daily reality
of our people and their suffering, and can't they once speak
as human beings instead of as third-rate imitations of Kissinger
and Rabin, who seem to have become their role models? What is
wrong with us that we can't ever speak concretely about the
central fact of our existence, which is that on every level,
for over 53 years, we have been oppressed by Israel and continue
to be oppressed with blockades, sieges, aerial bombardment,
missile and helicopter attacks, and that our refugees have not
received one penny of compensation or even the hope of repatriation
from the state that dispossessed them and has punished them
ever since?
What puzzles me is that even
after eight years of deception and betrayal, the official Palestinian
mind finds itself incapable of saying what a disaster Oslo was
and instead wants it brought back. That's like asking the executioner
if he wouldn't mind sharpening his axe a little before having
another go. Of course, one needs to stay in whatever political
game is going on, and of course, one must be able to respond
directly to questions about agreements, truces and so forth.
But above all, what I find so dismaying is that our spokespersons
show signs of being so totally remote from the daily horrors
of life for average Palestinians that they never even mention
it.
To them I want to say that
no matter the occasion, no matter the question, no matter the
newspaper or TV or radio journalist, every question must first
be answered with a few basic points about the military occupation
that has been in place for 34 years since 1967. This is the
source of violence, this is the source of the main problems,
and it is the reason Israel can never have real peace. Our entire
political position must be based on ending the occupation and
this must take precedence over any and every other consideration.
When Erekat or Shaath or Ashrawi or Khatib is asked something,
for example, about the Mitchell report or the Powell visit, the
answer should always begin, "so long as there is a military
occupation of Palestine by Israel, there can never be peace.
Occupation with tanks, soldiers, checkpoints and settlements
is violence, and it is much greater than anything Palestinians
have done by way of resistance." Something like that.
These estimable people have
to remember that 99 per cent of the people reading newspapers
or watching TV news all over the world (including Arabs) have
simply forgotten -- if they ever knew -- that Israel is an illegal
occupying power and has been for 34 years. So we must remind
the world of that over and over. Repeat and repeat and repeat.
This is not a difficult task, although it is, I believe, absolutely
crucial. To remind everyone repeatedly about the Israeli occupation
is a necessary repetition, much more so than stupidly inconsequential
and sentimental Israeli and American-style remarks about peace
and violence. Can we learn, or are we condemned to repeat our
mistakes forever? CP
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