Bitter Lemons is a web-based publication edited and operated by a Palestinian and an Israeli. It attempts to offer multiple takes on issues mostly relating to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Of course, it mostly caters to left-leaning Israelis but I like to think that it has a committed fan-base of Arabs as well. I would be really interested to know who actually reads it besides me.
Let me draw your attentiont to a really interesting piece that is up right now, written by Ziad Asali, a Palestinian living in the United States. Here is the money paragraph:
"Whatever strategies the Palestinians have utilized in the past have not worked. It is time to reflect, reassess and innovate. Violence may preclude a solution but it will not achieve one. The Palestinians alone cannot liberate Palestine. No people have sacrificed more, or longer, than the Palestinians have, but sacrifice without a strategy designed to win is not enough. In a struggle of this magnitude, more allies who, for their own reasons, share the vision of a state of Palestine alongside Israel are indispensable. Allies in the United States and in Israel, the two countries that play a pivotal role in the outcome of this conflict, have to be identified and mobilized. Violence against civilians alienates these potential allies and the Palestinian people must make the fateful choice between military confrontation and peaceful resistance and negotiations." (emphasis mine)
Asali is exactly right. Though I may disagree with him that "no people have sacrificed more" than the Palestinians, that's not really the point. The point is that the Palestinians need to reasses their tactics. They need to model their struggle after the American Civil Rights movement. What the Palestinians need is a Martin Luther King or a Neslon Mandela. The trouble is, people like that don't come around all that often and when there seems to be a spark of that sort, too often Israel or the United States or the Palestinians themselves throw water on it, extinguishing it and any hope it had of growing into something larger.
Witness Mahmoud Abbas. Here was a guy who was basically the first public Palestinian official to say that the Intifada might have been a mistake. Here was a guy who at least thought Arafat had passed his prime and probably thought a lot more than that. Here was a guy with legitimacy and gravitas and common sense. And what did the Sharon Government do? They ignored him. They undermined him. They did everything but help him build a moderate alternative to Arafat and Hamas. I'm not saying Abbas could have been a Mandela, but he showed promise. He had potential. He could have been that "partner" that Sharon claims does not exist.
Asali is right. The Palestinians need to forgoe all violence in favor of non-violent resistance. They especially need to stop all attacks on civilians. But Israel needs to help by strengthening people like Asali. Israel and the US need to make it clear that as soon as there is any indication whatsoever of a Palestinian Gandhi that they will do everything they can to help.
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