On The Question of 'Pro-Palestinian' Jews
Ibrahim Alloush
FAV Editor
Frequently Palestinians are set up in a guilt trip. They have to prove that
they do not hate Jews. The proving really never ends until you eventually
embrace the doctrine of "Israel's" security. But, really, Palestinians have
NOTHING to prove to the invader. It is exactly the other way around. A Jew
who claims to be anti-Zionist is the one who has something to prove (to
himself first of all), not a Palestinian who is fighting a Jewish
occupation.
If someone supports you, that means they support your cause to liberate your
land from an occupation. It doesn't mean that you have to change your
strategic objective away from liberation so they can start supporting you.
Otherwise, you have already lost your cause before even beginning.
'Support' which comes with attached strings is no support at all, but an
impediment.
We have a solid case. We can justify it using history, politics, Islam,
Arab nationalism, or even Marxism. We can argue it out with hard logic,
cold facts, and vivid art if need be. You name it, we can probably use it
to argue our cause. We don't need to give up the cause of liberation to win
our 'cause'. Afterall, what else is there besides the liberation of the
land! If they are not supporting THAT cause, then they are not supporting
our cause period. And if we cannot argue our cause with the benefit of all
the logical and historical tools at our disposal, then we are not going to
benefit anything from adopting the narrative of our enemy to 'support' our
cause, are we?
The history of liberation struggles worldwide has shown clearly that public
opinion in the enemy camp does not start to move against the policies of its
government until a liberation movement starts to inflict significant and
unacceptable losses on its enemy. That includes human, as well as political
and economic, losses. That is the story of the U.S. in Vietnam, France in
Algeria, and recently, "Israel" in South Lebanon. In other words, without
action on the ground, without popular uprisings, military operations, and
yes, human bombs if need be, public opinion in the enemy camp is likely to
wallow in the spoils of the conquest, not to side with the oppressed. Only
when a liberation movement starts to make the cost of an occupation greater
than the benefit, will those voices of 'reason' in the enemy camp start to
gain ground.
On the other hand, if public opinion in the enemy camp only hears those
pathetic voices of 'reason' in our camp calling on fellow Palestinians not
to do or say anything that might offend invaders because that would
adversely affect the effort for their hearts and minds, then we are
definitely going to lose public opinion in the enemy camp. In these Jewish
times, weaklings cannot win over anybody. They only get used and abused, as
recent experience with Arab presidents and kings, as well as Palestinian
negotiators, has shown. Those who cannot be a credible threat cannot be
credible players in international relations. They can't even negotiate.
They can only plea. Only when they learn that forgiveness in a state of
weakness and defeat is NOT a sign of their magnanimity, but exactly of their
weakness and defeat, will they stop sounding pathetic, even to public
opinion in the enemy camp.
In short, we have nothing to apologize for here. On the contrary, those who
claim to support us, but only on conditions such as condemning the human
bombs tactic, accepting the myths of the Hollowcause, and reassuring Jews
that their presence on our land is legitimate, even desirable, are not
really supporting us at all. They are indirectly asking us to embrace their
frame of mind so they can support us. But what does that really mean? Does
it mean that they are supporting us or that we are supporting them?! Who
gains here? Who loses? Think about it this way: we gain their support if
we agree to lose ourselves.
With all respect due to the hard efforts of many of my compatriots, I
believe we can never win over public opinion in the enemy camp by losing
ourselves, i.e., by ceding beforehand the alleged 'right' of the Jews in
Palestine, under the banner of a racist or a non-racist "israel". Palestine
is occupied land. What we are facing there is not just the usual invading
army, but a whole settler-invader entity. Thus, each part of that entity
proclaimed in 1948 is illegitimate, and is consequently a legitimate target.
We were not invaded only by soldiers to be stepping out of line when we
target more than soldiers here.. This is not to mention that soldiers are
much more inaccessible.
Similarly, if we help expose the hoax of the gas chambers, we do not risk
sounding 'anti-semiticist'. We just help unmask the mantra of
Jewish/Zionist power worldwide, and thereof, the alleged need for a Jewish
'safe haven' in Palestine.
[For a good discussion from a specialist on the non-existence of the gas
chambers, and the need for an international commission to investigate
Aushwitz, see part three of the following paper:
http://www.freearabvoice.org/Faurisson.htm
There are many good people in this world who are willing to support a good
cause when rational political arguments are presented on its behalf without
the 'love thy enemy' crap. We don't need to be contrite to gain support.
We need to pursue every possible effort to defend our cause on our terms,
not those of public opinion in the enemy camp. However, if you disagree and
feel that we need to 'play politics' instead, then at least let's agree that
just like Zionists use their alleged need to appease hard-liners in their
camp to extract this or that extra concession out of you, that you too
should probably do the same. And that's just for getting a small part of
what you want. It's a Jewish world out there..
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