[GushShalom] The rape of Rafah (Avnery) + vigils update

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/

[] Vigils update
[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness
                                  ***
[] Vigils update
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
           ùéîå ìá: äîùîøåú îçà äéåîéåú áðåùà øôéç áúì-àáéá, 
           çéôä åéøåùìéí áî÷åîåú äøâéìéí  îúçéìåú á6.30 áòøá 
                           åìà ëîå ðëúá ÷åãí
                                    
  NB: The daily Rafah protest vigils in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem 
     (usual locations) start at 6.30pm and not as written earlier.
                           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[] Avnery unravels the method in the madness

Hebrew at request &  soon at the site
òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä àå á÷øåá áàúø

22.5.04
Uri Avnery

				The rape of  Rafah

     The immense might of the Israeli army, assembled from all over the 
country, has attacked a small Palestinian township on the margin of 
the destitute Gaza Strip. Palestinians, both fighters 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 withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, and his original plan 
included the evacuation of the "Philadelphi Axis", a narrow buffer zone 
cutting Gaza off from Egypt. This means that he does not consider this 
entire territory necessary for the security of Israel. According to him, 
the Gaza Strip is 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 settlements there were a 
mistake from the start. This means that the soldiers who were killed 
there under his command died for nothing, for a mistake, and every 
soldier killed there now is dying in vain.
     But now more soldiers are being placed in mortal danger. Dozens 
of Palestinians, among them women and children, are being killed for 
the mistake.
     Does this sound crazy? What evil spirit possessed the Prime 
Minister and the Chief of Staff to start 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 tunnels have been there for years. The army 
boasts of destroying 98 such tunnels in the past, but only one single 
tunnel has been discovered in this operation. It is clear that no military 
action will put an end to them. Even if the army destroys more and 
more Palestinian homes in order to widen 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 pitiful little 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 our soldiers, hundreds of 
homes demolished for two destroyed personnel carriers.   
     Add to this the argument of morale. Some senior officers were open 
about this: an impressive operation that underlines the superiority of 
the Israeli army in order to raise the morale of the soldiers who are still 
smarting after the failures.
     One can also mention the guilty conscience of the commanders 
who sent their soldiers into the killings field riding on huge quantities of 
explosives in inadequately armored personnel carriers. 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 the contrary, if you fail, you can expect promotion.
     From a purely military point of view, the "Philadelphi Axis" (the 
name randomly generated by computer) is madness. It cannot be 
defended without committing atrocities constituting or bordering on war 
crimes. It attracts guerilla fighters as a candle attracts moths. But the 
army chiefs who devised it will never admit its folly.
     There is another reason for this operation. The generals want to 
leave Gaza "with their heads held high". They cannot allow the 
Palestinian guerillas to claim to have driven them out by force, as 
Hizbullah did in Lebanon.
    A childish argument, reflecting a particular military mentality. After 
Rafah, the very opposite will happen: the action will confirm to the 
Palestinians that their heroic stand has forced 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 in need of a resounding military show, with 
much killing and destroying, in order to gratify the primitive 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 military campaign in the alleys of Rafah: after his 
defeat in the Likud members' referendum, he was stuck 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 incapable of 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 operation started.
     Besides the generals' thirst for revenge, the action is designed to 
serve the personal interests of Sharon. The dramatic events in Rafah fill 
all the news bulletins and leave no room for Sharon's political failure. 
This restores his image as a resolute leader. Again he is a player on 
the global stage. And if the entire world condemns him, this only 
serves to raise his stature among his voters.
     And the opposition? A week ago, 150 thousand peaceniks 
demonstrated in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square to express their disgust with 
the present situation and to demand change. Some politicians 
appointed themselves as the leaders of these wonderful people and 
showered them with garbled and contradictory messages. Yet none of 
these speakers cried out this week against 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 
activists were facing the police in the streets of Tel-Aviv, and yesterday 
they held a tumultuous demonstration 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 desperate population. On the contrary, 
the mightier an army is, the smaller are its chances of succeeding. It 
can kill dozens and hundreds, destroy whole neighborhoods, drive 
masses of people from their homes and cause a small Nakba - nothing 
will help. A guerilla war can only be ended by compromise and a 
peaceful solution.
     A little reminder: the word "guerilla" (little war) was coined in Spain 
during the struggle against Napoleon. The French reacted with the 
utmost brutality, witnessed for eternity by Goya's shocking painting. It 
did not help them. Many historians believe that the Spanish guerilla 
stuck a mortal blow to Napoleon's world empire, even before his 
disastrous invasion of Russia.
     Sharon is no Napoleon, whatever he might believe. He will leave 
Rafah as he entered it. Nothing will change. Except one thing: Rafah, 
like Jenin, will take its place in the national epic that will sustain 
generations of Palestinians to come.
								***

# Donations for the families in Rafah whose houses were demolished 
can be sent by cheque - in your own currency! -  made out to Anat 
Matar,  33 Bernstein-Cohen Street, Ramat Hasharon 47213.
Bigger sums can be deposited to the Ta'ayush' bank account: 
Bank Hapoalim, acc. no. 396608, Ramat Aviv branch 606 
(Please avoid international bank transfer of two-digit sums because of 
prohibitive bank fees).  
NB:  in both cases you should inform Anat Matar about the sum you 
have donated,  by sending her the details at  <matar at post.tau.ac.il>


# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
   
Hebrew
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm

English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm

# Sharansky and the New Antisemitism, by Adam Keller - 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/sharansky.html

  More selected articles of The Other Israel May issue accessible via 
  http://otherisrael.home.igc.org/contents.html 

  Order your one time free sample (hard copy) from 
<otherisr at actcom.co.il>
  NB: Don't forget to include your postal address

 
# Against the Wall

*
ðåëçåú áëôøéí îàéîéí ò"é äçåîä ìúàí òí 
àééáé 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il
àøé÷ 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net

Presence at villages threatened by the wall, contact:  
Ivy Sichel 064-604172 isichel at netvision.net.il 
Arik Asherman 050-607034  info at rhr.israel.net 

*
Eye-witness reports from the Occupied Territories: 
http://www.machsomwatch.org 
  (Israeli women monitoring the checkpoints)
http://www.palsolidarity.org/pressreleases/pressreleases.php
  (internationals throughout OT)


# Refusniks 

Constantly-updated refusniks lists:

English - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/english/prison/
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.yesh-gvul.org/prison/

English - http://www.newprofile.org/default.asp?language=en
Hebrew / òáøéú - http://www.newprofile.org/

Help us free our children from the military prison! (parents of The Five)
          For ENGLISH details please click http://www.refuz.org.il/help.html 
          For HEBREW please click http://www.refuz.org.il/hebrew/help.html 

--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)

with
\\photos of recent actions 
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad 
\\the columns of Uri Avnery 
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle  
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more

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