On the Political Wisdom of Human Bombs

عن حكمة العمليات الاستشهادية

July 6, 2002

In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV) we tackle different aspects of
the political and strategic efficacy of the human bombs tactic:

1) On the Political Wisdom of the Human Bombs Tactic: An Editorial by the
Free Arab Voice rebutting allegations that human bombs are not expedient,
even if legitimate.

2) (In Arabic) An Arabic Translation of the Free Arab Voice Editorial:
حول الحكمة السياسية للقنابل البشرية

3) A Statement by 150 Palestinian and Arab Intellectuals and Activists
Urging the Continuation of ALL Forms of Resistance and Condemning the Call
to Desist the Human Bombs Tactic.

4) (In Arabic) A Translation of the Statement of the 150 Palestinian and
Arab Intellectuals in Support of ALL Forms of Resistance.
بيان من 150 مثقف ومناضل فلسطيني وعربي يحثون فيه على استمرار المقاومة بكل
أشكالها ويدينون الدعوة إلى وقف العمليات الاستشهادية.  إضغط على اللنك التالي
http://www.freearabvoice.org/arabi/zawiyatuLKurra_i/ma3AlMuqawalati.htm

5) (In Arabic) A Statement from Birzeit University Students Threatening to
Treat Palestinians Who Called for the End of Human Bombs like They Did
Jospin.  We have added photos of Jospin in Birzeit at the bottom of the
statement to make the point clearer.
طلاب جامعة بيرزيت يهددون بالتعامل مع الفلسطينيين الداعين لوقف العمليات
الاستشهادية كما عاملوا جوسبان

6) (In Arabic) A Report from the West Bank Gauging People's Reactions to the
Statement Calling for an End to Human Bombs
تقرير من الضفة الغربية عن موقف الناس من البيان الداعي إلى وقف العمليات
الاستشهادية

7) What is New About the Statement of the 55? A Comment by Abu Nicola Al
Yunani.

8)(In Arabic) On the Falsehood of the Claim of "Israeli Civilians", by Fouad
Yasien

زيف المزاعم "الإسرائيلية" حول إعتبار المستوطنين مجتمعاً مدنياً، بقلم فؤاد
ياسين. إضغط على اللنك التالي

9)Fruits of the Intifada: A Look at Some of the Accomplishments of the
Militarization of the Intifada.  View the Index of the Fruits of the
Intifada file

a - The Destruction of the Mirkava III Tank Brings Down Zionist Military
Trade, Morale, and Strategy.

(In Arabic) The Mirkava Newsbyte: 
تدمير دبابات الميركافا 3 يضرب التجارة
العسكرية والمعنويات والاستراتيجية الدفاعية الصهيونية. إذهب إلى اللنك التالي

b - Fruits of the Intifada II: "Israelis" Seek Insurance Domicile in
Germany.

(In Arabic) "Israeli" Immigration Requests to Germany on the Rise Newsbyte:
تمرات الانتفاضة الثانية: طلبات الهجرة من "إسرائيل" إلى ألمانيا في تزايد.
إضغط على اللنك التالي

c - "Israeli" Reservists Refuse to Serve in the Part of Palestine Occupied
in 1967.

10) (In Arabic) Of Martyrs and Opportunists: 
الاستشهاديون وبيان المتساقطين،
بقلم علي حتر. إضغط على اللنك التالي

11) Reference Material:

a - The Statement of Shame: The Statement Calling for an End to Human Bombs
with a List of the Signatories.
بيان الداعين لوقف العمليات الاستشهادية مع قائمة باسمائهم بالانكليزية.  إضغط
على اللنك أعلاه

b - The Truth about Martyrdom in Arab and Islamic Culture: what is a martyr
in Arab culture and Islam, and why is he or she revered in the East and
reviled in the West? By Nabila Harb/FAV co-editor.

c - (In Arabic) On the Intrinsic LEGITIMACY of Human Bombs.
القنابل البشرية
في ميزان الحق العام: حول مشروعية العمليات الاستشهادية.  إضغط على اللنك
التالي



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1) On the Political Wisdom of Human Bombs: An Editorial

Palestinian opponents of the human bombs tactic have recently issued a
statement calling for an end to ‘attacks on Israeli civilians’.   When
viewed in combination with the repeated condemnations of human bombs that
have been declared by the Palestinian National Authority as a result of
heavy pressures from the U.S. and other governments, the recent statement in
the same vein by some Palestinian intellectuals and activists becomes
significant in its TIMING, not just in its content.  After all, the
statement came as part of an internationally concerted media campaign to
create the impression that human bombs are a controversial issue for
Palestinians when in fact the opposite is true.

For example, opinion polls indicate that support amongst Palestinians for
the human bombs tactic runs somewhere between a ceiling of 90-plus percent
(according to Al Jazeera.net) to a floor of 60-plus percent (according to an
agency affiliated with the PNA itself which condemns human bombs).  Another
poll by Yediot Ahronot, the “Israeli” newspaper, indicates that support for
the human bombs tactic amongst Palestinians is about 78 percent.  But the
isolation of opponents of the human bombs tactic in the Palestinian arena
appears even starker if we keep in mind that according to all the opinion
polls above, there were wide margins of responses that oscillated in
between, i.e., many of those who did not vote for human bombs did not vote
against them either.

Nevertheless, whether one agrees in principle with the human bombs tactic or
not, one has to question the political wisdom of affiliating oneself with a
campaign orchestrated by international policy-making institutions, such as
the U.S. government, with long histories of animosity towards Palestinian
and other Third World causes.  Statements and actions do not occur, after
all, in a political vacuum, and are therefore bound to serve the interests
of this or that party to a conflict.  In this instance, the media campaign
to condemn human bombs stemmed from strategies and interests that are, to
say the least, anti-Palestinian.  In other words, this media campaign did
not arise from an alternative, yet sincere, viewpoint on how to best achieve
Palestinian Arab national aspirations.  It originated rather from the same
power centers with the long colonial past which created the Palestinian
problem in the first place, and who have an interest in sowing confusion and
justifying Zionist actions against Palestinians.  Hence, having associated
themselves with the policies of emerging power centers of the New World
Order such as the European Union, the signatories of the statement calling
for an end to ‘attacks on Israeli civilians’ have first of all condemned
themselves on their dubious timing regardless of the content of their
message.

On style, opponents of the human bombs tactic nowadays do NOT deprecate the
legitimacy of human bombs, but focus their critique instead on their
political expediency.  Perhaps it’s the overwhelming support for human bombs
amongst Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims that made opponents aware that any
attempt to question the legitimacy of human bombs as a matter of principle
is likely to fall on deaf ears.   Either way, the essence of the new media
package of the opponents of the human bombs tactic is that ‘attacks on
Israeli civilians’ are likely to:

1)	make us lose the support of the international community, especially after
September 11 and the international atmosphere opposing “terrorism”

2)	make us lose the support of those sections of “Israeli” pubic opinion who
are likely to support Palestinian rights but who would be alienated if they
have to endure the fear of being blown up any minute

3)	give Sharon (as if Sharon is not a natural extension of Zionist practices
since the early 1900’s!) the needed pretext to visit more death and
destruction on Palestinians

4)	cause eventually more Palestinian losses than Zionist losses, and are
thus, on the balance, not expedient politically or militarily

5)	lead to the annihilation of the Palestinian National Authority and other
Palestinian ‘gains’ that precipitated from many years of hard peace
negotiations

… And so on, so forth.

Hence, the new rhetoric is designed to avoid the appearance of standing in
the middle of the path of the mighty popular tide that supports human bombs.
  It is, in effect, designed to ride the patriotic wave in order to veer it
off course, in a maneuver all too familiar in Palestinian and Arab politics.
  Of course, the resumes of many of the signatories of the statement calling
for an end to ‘attacks on Israeli civilians’ indicate that they are mostly
political creatures hatched in the incubators of negotiations teams with
“Israel” and foreign-financed NGO’s, with all the implied personal
privileges and political concessions.  Many of them have openly expressed
defeatist views before, ranging from the need to give up on the right of
return to total disagreement with what they called ‘the militarization of
the Intifada’.  But today they have come together to play a different tune..

So be it.  Let’s pretend for the time being that the legitimacy of human
bombs is not subject to discussion here, and that we are analyzing their
strategic and political benefits only.  In the process, let’s also assume
that the signatories to the statement calling for an end to human bombs
believe that a people under occupation have the right to use all the means
at their disposal to liberate themselves.  Let’s assume as well that the
signatories know that “Israel” is not an army invading a people, but a
settler-invader society that brutally uprooted another society in order to
take its place.  Let’s assume momentarily that the signatories know and
understand also that “Israel” is but a colonial base in the heart of the
Arab World, and that they understand as well why most Palestinians believe
that there is no such thing as ‘civilians’ in “Israel” and why they consider
all settler-invaders as kosher targets (for more on this, please see:
Ten Reasons why "Israeli" Jews are Kosher Targets)

The principle of targeting settler-invaders (not civilians) is not on the
table here then.  Now let’s turn to the question of the political and
strategic wisdom of the human bombs tactic.  Given that, we would like to
advance the following propositions:

1)	The human element is the most vulnerable spot in the settler-invader
society called “Israel”.  For example, depleting that element in a war of
endless attrition was the essence of Hizbollah’s strategy in South Lebanon.
In fact, never before has the Palestinian resistance had so much leverage
over “Israel” as it did in the escalation of human bomb attacks.  The
consequences to “Israeli” morale, economy, immigration, and stability even,
have been undeniable.  The pith of “Israel’s” sensitive nerve has finally
fallen in the grip of the heroic resistance.  To give up that card so
easily, just because the U.S. and some European governments think we should,
would be totally irrational.

2)	In political conflicts or in treaties between warring parties, the
outcome is typically dictated by THE BALANCE OF POWER, not by appeals,
groveling, or statements to be nice to the enemy.  When dealing with
zero-sum games, irreconcilable interests, and fundamentally clashing
contradictions, such as the case in the Arab-Zionist conflict, the winner is
eventually the party which can amass more elements of strength on its side.
If “Israel” is superior technologically or has always enjoyed the
multi-faceted support of colonial powers new and old, human bombs do not
only become a natural response to the circumstances of the occupation, but
an ingenious means of having a more leveled playing field.  To abandon them
would be to lose a major element of Palestinian Arab strength.  This would
weaken the political position of all, including those bartering the whole
for some of the parts.

3)	Experience has shown that winning over sections of public opinion in the
enemy camp is not just a matter of public relations, or even well-reasoned
arguments.  It is only when a liberation movement succeeds in inflicting
unacceptable losses on its enemy that cracks begin to appear in the enemy
camp and ‘voices of reason’ begin to find an audience there.  Such were the
examples of France in Algeria, the U.S. in Vietnam, and “Israel” in South
Lebanon.  Those who believe in wooing the enemy with soft words, without the
benefit of very big sticks, do not know the first thing about political
strategy.  Only when a Palestinian Arab liberation movement can inflict
horrendously unacceptable losses on the invader will that movement be able
to make use of contradictions within the enemy camp.  Otherwise, it is the
enemy that will make use of those within our camp who are all too willing to
give up our elements of strength in the hope of winning over the enemy.

4)	The main difference between the examples of South Lebanon and Palestine
is not that Hizbullah had more logistical, financial, or military support
than the Palestine Liberation Organization did.  In fact, the opposite is
the case since the PLO historically enjoyed MORE logistical, financial,
military, and political support than Hizbullah, not to mention bases along
the Jordanian border (in the late sixties) and in South Lebanon (through
1982).  Thus, the main difference between the experiences of Hizbullah, the
Vietnamese, and the Algerians, on one hand, and the PLO on the other hand,
is the quality of their PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP and SOLID ORGANIZATION.  The
point is that what happens to the Palestinian National Authority is not
important at all if the price is Palestinian National Rights.  Any group or
leader should be judged on the basis of the criterion of how much they serve
Palestine, not the criterion of how much Palestine serves them.  It would be
ridiculous, from a historical point of view, to give up the armed struggle
in any of its forms in order to preserve the PNA or the privileges and
occidental status of opportunistic parasites like the signatories of the
statement calling for an end to human bombs.  For they are nothing.
Palestine is everything.

5)	Zionism operates not on reflexes and whims, but on long-standing
strategies.  For example, the next phase in the American-Zionist strategy is
a New Middle East where “Israel” can become the regional economic,
political, and cultural superpower of the region.  In that context, a
Palestinian state designed along Zio-American specifications will serve as a
stepping stone towards the rest of the Arab World.  The point is that
Zionism has been using massacres, forced expulsions, and the appropriation
of land throughout the Twentieth Century because that is what it is and what
it does.  It does not need a ‘pretext’ for doing these things because they
have been the favorite means of achieving its strategic goals.  Sharon did
not need a pretext to commit the Sabra and Shatilla massacres.  Massacres
committed in the course of occupying Palestine in 1948 have been estimated
at 104.  There were no human bombs then.  The thousands of Palestinian kids
shot point blank in demonstrations against the occupation were not human
bombers either.  Muhammad Durrah and Iman Hajjo were not dangerous
“terrorists”.  For the last one hundred years Zionist practices have not
changed.  It is clear then that the Palestinian Arab people have no choice
but to defend their existence by all means necessary, especially those means
that affect the invader the most, like human bombs.  There is no other
choice.  The Zionists have made it this way.   What we need, therefore, is
MORE human bombs and attacks on invaders, not less, because without human
bombs, the Palestinians will be like slaughtered sheep.  With a proper
escalation of human bombs and other forms of resistance, they may stand a
chance, or at least die with their boots on.

There are eventually two kinds of people in this world: those who only see
the symptoms, and those who dig deeper for the root causes.  Racism in
“Israel”, colonies in the West Bank and Gaza, administrative detention, the
point blank shootings of Palestinian demonstrators, extra-judicial
assassinations, etc.. are all but symptoms of one root cause: the Zionist
OCCUPATION of Palestine.  The edge human bombs have over all other means of
resisting the symptoms of the occupation is that more than any other means
they go for the root cause, i.e., the settler-invader society itself.
Hence, they reign superior over all the other means of resistance.

As for intellectuals, there are eventually two kinds of them in this world:
those who intellectualize to justify the status quo, and those who
intellectualize to change it.  After all is said and done, those who signed
the statement calling for an end to human bombs were effectively defending
the status quo of the occupation (with some embellishments).  On the other
hand, the intellectuals, writers, journalists, spokespersons, and artists
interested in eliminating the occupation would rather focus on debunking the
Zionist and defeatist lines in any form they may take.

We do not need to lie or to make concessions on principle to win over
supporters for our cause.  Our cause stands on solid grounds whether one
chooses to cast it in historical, logical, legalistic, Islamic,
nationalistic, or Marxist terms.

We do not need to apologize for our legitimate (and expedient) resistance.
On the contrary, we need to be proud that while our brothers and sisters
have been giving their lives on street pavements so Palestine may live (not
because they are desperate individuals), we have been honored with the
lesser task of defending their sacrifices in the realm of thought and in the
media.  That is the task of the hour to which all sincere Palestinian
writers and spokespersons must dedicate themselves.   Indeed, that is the
task of defenders of truth and justice everywhere.

THE FREE ARAB VOICE

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