The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the country, has attacked asmall Palestinian township on the margin of the destitute Gaza Strip. Palestinians, bothfighters and civilians, are being killed by the dozen, homes are being destroyed wholesale,the sight of the fleeing population bring back memories of 1948.
All this – for what?
At first sight, the whole action is absurd. Ariel Sharon has proposed a unilateral withdrawalfrom all of the Gaza Strip, and his original plan included the evacuation of the “PhiladelphiAxis”, a narrow buffer zone cutting Gaza off from Egypt. This means that he does not considerthis entire territory necessary for the security of Israel. According to him, the Gaza Stripis a military and demographic burden, and the quicker we get out of it, the better.
Sha’ul Mofaz, a former Chief of Staff and the present Minister of Defense, went even further.This eminent thinker revealed that Gaza is not a part of “our patrimony”, that the settlementsthere were a mistake from the start. This means that the soldiers who were killed there underhis command died for nothing, for a mistake, and every soldier killed there now is dying invain.
But now more soldiers are being placed in mortal danger. Dozens of Palestinians, among themwomen and children, are being killed for the mistake.
Does this sound crazy? What evil spirit possessed the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff tostart a big military operation in a territory that the army is supposed to leave at any moment?
There must be some method in this madness. What is the real reason for this onslaught?
The official purpose is to “destroy the tunnels” under the “Philadelphi Axis”. But tunnelshave been there for years. The army boasts of destroying 98 such tunnels in the past, but onlyone single tunnel has been discovered in this operation. It is clear that no military actionwill put an end to them. Even if the army destroys more and more Palestinian homes in order towiden the axis – the new tunnels will just be longer.
The tunnels are a pretext. So, what were the real reasons for this brutal invasion of a pitifullittle town?
The first reason is the simplest: thirst for revenge. The army has suffered two painful blows,its commanders want to settle the account. Dozens of Palestinians are killed for 13 of oursoldiers, hundreds of homes demolished for two destroyed personnel carriers.
Add to this the argument of morale. Some senior officers were open about this: an impressiveoperation that underlines the superiority of the Israeli army in order to raise the morale ofthe soldiers who are still smarting after the failures.
One can also mention the guilty conscience of the commanders who sent their soldiers into thekillings field riding on huge quantities of explosives in inadequately armored personnelcarriers. In a decent army the responsible officers – headed by the hapless Chief of Staff -would have resigned within hours. But in the Israeli army that is not the way things are. On thecontrary, if you fail, you can expect promotion.
From a purely military point of view, the “Philadelphi Axis” (the name randomly generated bycomputer) is madness. It cannot be defended without committing atrocities constituting orbordering on war crimes. It attracts guerilla fighters as a candle attracts moths. But thearmy chiefs who devised it will never admit its folly.
There is another reason for this operation. The generals want to leave Gaza “with their headsheld high”. They cannot allow the Palestinian guerillas to claim to have driven them out byforce, as Hizbullah did in Lebanon.
A childish argument, reflecting a particular military mentality. After Rafah, the veryopposite will happen: the action will confirm to the Palestinians that their heroic stand hasforced the army out. Who will be able to deny that?
But the directive for the onslaught on Rafah came from the political leadership, which was inneed of a resounding military show, with much killing and destroying, in order to gratify theprimitive emotions of a part of the public. Simply put: they hurt us, so we hurt them tenfold.Ten eyes for an eye, ten teeth for a tooth. That’s how votes are won.
Ariel Sharon also has a very good personal reason for ordering such a glorious militarycampaign in the alleys of Rafah: after his defeat in the Likud members’ referendum, he wasstuck in a dead end. Opponents in his party and his government blocked him in all directions.
A few days after the Likud vote, Gush Shalom published a political ad under the headline”Warning!” It read:
“Sharon now resembles a wounded bull.
“A wounded bull is a dangerous animal.
“His plan is dead. He is incapable of dismantling even one single settlement. He is incapableof getting another plan accepted.
“His only way out is to order a spectacular military adventure.
“There is no limit to the bloody deeds he is capable of now in order to survive.”
This warning was published in Haaretz on May 7. Less than two weeks later, the operationstarted.
Besides the generals’ thirst for revenge, the action is designed to serve the personalinterests of Sharon. The dramatic events in Rafah fill all the news bulletins and leave no roomfor Sharon’s political failure. This restores his image as a resolute leader. Again he is aplayer on the global stage. And if the entire world condemns him, this only serves to raise hisstature among his voters.
And the opposition? A week ago, 150 thousand peaceniks demonstrated in Tel-Aviv’s RabinSquare to express their disgust with the present situation and to demand change. Somepoliticians appointed themselves as the leaders of these wonderful people and showered themwith garbled and contradictory messages. Yet none of these speakers cried out this weekagainst the atrocity in Rafah. The radical peace movements were again left alone in the field.A few hours after the killing of the unarmed demonstrators in Rafah, these peace activistswere facing the police in the streets of Tel-Aviv, and yesterday they held a tumultuousdemonstration at the roadblock near Rafah.
The invasion of Rafah will, of course, fail, as did the invasion of Jenin. A regular army,strong as it may be, cannot put down guerilla fighters who are supported by a desperatepopulation. On the contrary, the mightier an army is, the smaller are its chances ofsucceeding. It can kill dozens and hundreds, destroy whole neighborhoods, drive masses ofpeople from their homes and cause a small Nakba – nothing will help. A guerilla war can only beended by compromise and a peaceful solution.
A little reminder: the word “guerilla” (little war) was coined in Spain during the struggleagainst Napoleon. The French reacted with the utmost brutality, witnessed for eternity byGoya’s shocking painting. It did not help them. Many historians believe that the Spanishguerilla stuck a mortal blow to Napoleon’s world empire, even before his disastrous invasionof Russia.
Sharon is no Napoleon, whatever he might believe. He will leave Rafah as he entered it. Nothingwill change. Except one thing: Rafah, like Jenin, will take its place in the national epic thatwill sustain generation of Palestinians to come.