Defeatism as a Psycho-political Disease

If you go to a circus one of these days, you might see a very
huge elephant standing without complaint in one spot tied up
with only a thin rope. Let's call this elephant 3abdo…

There is no question that 3abdo the Elephant has more than
enough muscular strength to break free not only of that little
rope, but of much thicker, stronger ropes than this one.

But this is not just any rope. No sir!! This is the same rope,
or one that is very similar to, the one 3abdo used to be tied
with when he was young and weak.

Over time, THE IDEA OF THAT rope became itself a deterrent.
Then the mere sight of it evoked surrender and immobilization.
In a case like this, THE ROPE BECOMES INTERNALIZED. 3abdo has
internalized his defeat (to use a term used by Adel Samara, in
his pamphlet about political Islam).

When it impedes our ability as individuals and as a nation
to move forward in our lives due either to fear of failure
or a belief in one's own worthlessness, this internal rope
turns into a psycho-political disease.

Too many of us think that the symbolic or moral elements in
the conflict between the Zionists and ourselves are not important.
In fact, we could learn from 3abdo's Rope that nothing could be
farther from the truth. In military strategy, it is a given that
superior morale is just as important as superiority in hardware,
strategic planning, discipline, and logistics.

If the enemy is able to destroy your incentive and your will
to resist at the very start, it makes victory an easier task
to accomplish. Sun Tzu's ancient Chinese classic, The Art of
War, declares : TO WIN WITHOUT FIGHTING IS BEST.

If you believe that you are bound to lose because the enemy
is technologically superior, has spies everywhere, or simply
because you are addicted to defeat from childhood, that will
make the enemy's job much easier, won't it?!!  Note however
that even though we might frequently think that way, as we
reel under occupation and dictatorship, the Vietnamese, the
Algerians, and all of the outnumbered people who succeeded
in liberating themselves (without necessarily succeeding in
building a good regime after liberation), could not have
thought that way. When oppressed, YOU MUST CHALLENGE THE ODDS
if you hope to make headway. If you always play by the odds,
on the other hand, YOU BECOME A SLAVE OF THE STATUS QUO, which
is founded on your subjugation.

Do you think that recognition of "Israel" is nothing more
than meaningless ink on paper? Think again. Recognition means
legitimacy. If we give legitimacy to our enemy, our struggle
automatically becomes illegitimate.

Politically, THAT RECOGNITION BECOMES THE ROPE OF 3ABDO. It
will be invoked against any Palestinian, Arab, or Islamic
activist who struggles against Zionism and its State. The
recognition itself emanates from our psychological defeat
as a nation and as activists, having been extracted from
us at one of our weakest moments.

We Arabs have vast human, economic, and political resources
that remain untapped because we lack the collective will to
fight. One of the reasons we lack the collective will is lack
of leadership of the sort that Nasser once provided. Another
is the internal disease of psycho-political defeat that infects
most of us to varying degrees.

WE MUST CONSCIOUSLY AND DELIBERATELY *CONFRONT* DEFEATISM WITHIN
US WITH THE WILL TO WIN.  Begin by challenging yourself, carefully
examining all of the political justifications embedded in our
consciousness that comprise our own infamous Rope of 3abdo,
previous failures included.

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