Sir, It's the Wrong War! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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http://www.redglobe.info/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=148


Posted on Sunday, March 10 @ 12:30:38 CET by MT
 Uri Avnery - 9.3.02
Sir, It's the Wrong War!

After the invasion of the Balata refugee camp by a regular

brigade of the IDF, the brigade commander appeared on

television and said that he had expected the Palestinians

to fight like tigers, but that they behaved like pussycats.

This is a frightening sentence, because it discloses a

startling fact: the Brigade commander does not understand

in what kind of campaign he is engaged. He has to be told,

with all due respect: "Sir, you are fighting the wrong war!"


Clearly, he believes that he is engaged in a conventional

war between armies. The enemy is supposed to stand up

and fight like men, assault  rifles against tanks and fighter

planes.

The commander and all his colleagues, including the

Chief-of-Staff and his deputy, would be well advised to read

a good book about guerilla warfare, such as Mao Tse-Tung's

treatise, which tells the guerilla fighter: Never confront the

regular army. When the army attacks, you disappear. When

the army is not ready, you attack.

For example: The army surrounds Arafat in Ramallah,

Destroy a Merkava tank in Gush Katif. A whole brigade

invades Balata; Get out and send a single fighter to kill

the team of a check-point near Ofrah. A brigade attacks

Jenin; Get out of their sight and infiltrate Atzmona

settlement.

The statement by the brigade commander indicates

that the IDF is fighting on a front that does not exist,

and is not prepared for fighting on the front that is

there. It's like a general setting out to conquer Syria

and holding a map of the Sudan in his hands.

Since Chief-of-Staff Mofaz and his senior officers

don�t even understand the nature of this struggle, they

are failing. Out of frustration and anger they shoot in all

directions and commit a small massacre every day,

without any purpose or chance of success. Since they

were not trained for this kind of struggle and do not

understand it, they are condemned to commit every

possible mistake. One after another, they use all the

methods that have already failed in Algeria, Kenya,

South Africa, Vietnam and a dozen of other countries.

They try to starve the inhabitants into submission

(�closure�), and inadvertendly turn them into potential

suicide-bombers with nothing to lose. They assassinate

the chiefs of the fighting groups ("targeted prevention"),

and clear the way for younger, more efficient and more

energetic commanders. The kill massively ("you have

to strike them") and turn the relatives of the victims into

avengers.

If this is the way of the generals, the "political echelon",

composed of pensioned generals, is worse. They

imprison Arafat in Ramallah in order to prove that he is

"irrelevant", and turn him into the most relevant person in

the entire Middle East. As a result, all internal criticism

of Arafat has ceased. Practically all Palestinians admire

their President, who is taking part in their lot, suffers like

them and is risking his life like them. And beyond that tens

of millions of Arabs, who see rousing reports from

beleaguered Palestine every hour on al-Jazira TV, compare

the courageous Palestinian leader to their own rulers, who

are now very worried indeed. In response they sounded the

alarm in Washington and have compelled President Bush to

do something.

Sharon and Ben-Eliezer declare that if the Palestinians are

made to suffer more and more, they will eventually surrender

and agree to live in several Ghettos, as proposed by Sharon.

In practice, the opposite is happening: the more the pressure

on them mounts, the more their unity grows, their methods

of resistance improve and their readiness to suffer and not to

surrender increases.

Thousands of Palestinians are ready to undertake actions

 leading to certain death, and their number is growing. How

many Israelis are ready to go into action if there is no

chance at all of coming out alive? Palestinians know full well

that they are fighting for their very existence; Israelis know

that they are fighting for the settlements and bankrupt politicians.

The Israeli government cannot win this struggle. After paying a

terrible price - slaughter and destruction - this will become clear

 to the public, the government will fall and we shall make peace

according to the Saudi Crown Prince's excellent proposal.

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