[Reader-list] Said on tactics for Palestine

[Rana Dasgupta]

> >Thinking ahead: After survival, what happens? 
> >By Edward Said 
> > 
> >Anyone with any connection at all to Palestine is
today in a state of 
> >stunned outrage and shock. While almost a repeat of
what happened in 
> >1982, Israel's current all-out colonial assault on
the Palestinian 
> >people (with George Bush's astoundingly ignorant
and grotesque support) 
> >is indeed worse than Sharon's two previous mass
forays in 1971 and 1982 
> >against the Palestinian people. The political and
moral climate today is 
> >a good deal cruder and reductive, the media's
destructive role (which 
> >has played the part almost entirely of singling out
Palestinian suicide 
> >attacks and isolating them from their context in
Israel's 35-year 
> >illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories)
greater in favouring 
> >the Israeli view of things, the US's power more
unchallenged, the war 
> >against terrorism has more completely taken over
the global agenda and, 
> >so far as the Arab environment is concerned, there
is greater 
> >incoherence and fragmentation than ever before. 
> > 
> >Sharon's homicidal instincts have been enhanced (if
that's the right 
> >word) by all of the above, and magnified to boot.
This in effect means 
> >that he can do more damage with more impunity than
before, although he 
> >is also more deeply undermined than before in all
his efforts as well as 
> >in his entire career by the failure that comes with
single-minded 
> >negation and hate, which in the end nourish neither
political nor even 
> >military success. Conflicts between peoples such as
this contain more 
> >elements than can be eliminated by tanks and air
power, and a war 
> >against unarmed civilians -- no matter how many
times Sharon lumberingly 
> >and mindlessly trumpets his stupid mantras about
terror -- can never 
> >bring a really lasting political result of the sort
his dreams tells him 
> >he can have. Palestinians will not go away.
Besides, Sharon will almost 
> >certainly end up disgraced and rejected by his
people. He has no plan, 
> >except to destroy everything about Palestine and
the Palestinians. Even 
> >in his enraged fixation on Arafat and terror, he is
failing to do much 
> >more than raise the man's prestige while
essentially drawing attention 
> >to the blind monomania of his own position. 
> > 
> >In the end he is Israel's problem to deal with. For
us, our main 
> >consideration now is morally to do everything in
our power to make 
> >certain that despite the enormous suffering and
destruction imposed on 
> >us by a criminal war, we must go on. When a
renowned and respected 
> >retired politician like Zbigniew Brzezinski says
explicitly on national 
> >television that Israel has been behaving like the
white supremacist 
> >regime of apartheid South Africa, one can be
certain that he is not 
> >alone in this view, and that an increasing number
of Americans and 
> >others are slowly growing not only disenchanted but
also disgusted with 
> >Israel as a hugely expensive and draining ward of
the United States, 
> >costing far too much, increasing American
isolation, and seriously 
> >damaging the country's reputation with its allies
and its citizens. The 
> >question is what, in this most difficult of
moments, can we rationally 
> >learn about the present crisis that we need to
include in our plans for 
> >the future? 
> > 
> >What I have to say now is highly selective, but it
is the modest fruit 
> >of many years working on behalf of the Palestinian
cause as someone who 
> >is from both Arab and Western worlds. I neither
know nor can say 
> >everything, but here are some of the handful of
thoughts I can 
> >contribute at this very difficult hour. Each of the
four points that 
> >follow here is related to the other. 
> > 
> >1) For better or for worse, Palestine is not just
an Arab and Islamic 
> >cause, it is important to many different,
contradictory and yet 
> >intersecting worlds. To work for Palestine is
necessarily to be aware of 
> >these many dimensions and constantly to educate
oneself in them. For 
> >that we need a highly educated, vigilant and
sophisticated leadership 
> >and democratic support for it. Above all we must,
as Mandela never tired 
> >of saying about his struggle, be aware that
Palestine is one of the 
> >great moral causes of our time. Therefore, we need
to treat it as such. 
> >It's not a matter of trade, or bartering
negotiations, or making a 
> >career. It is a just cause which should allow
Palestinians to capture 
> >the high moral ground and keep it. 
> > 
> >2) There are different kinds of power, military of
course being the most 
> >obvious. What has enabled Israel to do what it has
been doing to the 
> >Palestinians for the past 54 years is the result of
a carefully and 
> >scientifically planned campaign to validate Israeli
actions and, 
> >simultaneously, devalue and efface Palestinian
actions. This is not just 
> >a matter of maintaining a powerful military but of
organising opinion, 
> >especially in the United States and Western Europe,
and is a power 
> >derived from slow, methodical work where Israel's
position is seen as 
> >one to be easily identified with, whereas the
Palestinians are thought 
> >of as Israel's enemies, hence repugnant, dangerous,
against "us." Since 
> >the end of the Cold War, Europe has faded into
near-insignificance so 
> >far as the organisation of opinion, images, and
thought are concerned. 
> >America (outside of Palestine itself) is the main
arena of battle. We 
> >have simply never learned the importance of
systematically organising 
> >our political work in this country on a mass level,
so that for instance 
> >the average American will not immediately think of
"terrorism" when the 
> >word "Palestinian" is pronounced. That kind of work
quite literally 
> >protects whatever gains we might have made through
on-the-ground 
> >resistance to Israel's occupation. What has enabled
Israel to deal with 
> >us with impunity, therefore, has been that we are
unprotected by any 
> >body of opinion that would deter Sharon from
practicing his war crimes 
> >and saying that what he has done is to fight
terrorism. Given the 
> >immense diffusionary, insistent, and repetitive
power of the images 
> >broadcast by CNN, for example, in which the phrase
"suicide bomb" is 
> >numbingly repeated a hundred times an hour for the
American consumer and 
> >tax-payer, it is the grossest negligence not to
have had a team of 
> >people like Hanan Ashrawi, Leila Shahid, Ghassan
Khatib, Afif Safie -- 
> >to mention just a few -- sitting in Washington
ready to go on CNN or any 
> >of the other channels just to tell the Palestinian
story, provide 
> >context and understanding, give us a moral and
narrative presence with 
> >positive, rather than merely negative, value. We
need a future 
> >leadership that understands this as one of the
basic lessons of modern 
> >politics in an age of electronic communication. Not
to have understood 
> >this is part of the tragedy of today. 
> > 
> >3) There is simply no use operating politically and
responsibly in a 
> >world dominated by one superpower without a
profound familiarity and 
> >knowledge of that superpower -- America, its
history, its institutions, 
> >its currents and counter-currents, its politics and
culture; and, above 
> >all, a perfect working knowledge of its language.
To hear our spokesmen, 
> >as well as the other Arabs, saying the most
ridiculous things about 
> >America, throwing themselves on its mercy, cursing
it in one breath, 
> >asking for its help in another, all in miserably
inadequate fractured 
> >English, shows a state of such primitive
incompetence as to make one 
> >cry. America is not monolithic. We have friends and
we have possible 
> >friends. We can cultivate, mobilise, and use our
communities and their 
> >affiliated communities here as an integral part of
our politics of 
> >liberation, just as the South Africans did, or as
the Algerians did in 
> >France during their struggle for liberation.
Planning, discipline, 
> >coordination. We have not at all understood the
politics of 
> >non-violence. Moreover, neither have we understood
the power of trying 
> >to address Israelis directly, the way the ANC
addressed the white South 
> >Africans, as part of a politics of inclusion and
mutual respect. 
> >Coexistence is our answer to Israeli exclusivism
and belligerence. This 
> >is not conceding: it is creating solidarity, and
therefore isolating the 
> >exclusivists, the racists, the fundamentalists. 
> > 
> >4) The most important lesson of all for us to
understand about ourselves 
> >is manifest in the terrible tragedies of what
Israel is now doing in the 
> >occupied territories. The fact is that we are a
people and a society, 
> >and despite Israel's ferocious attack against the
PA, our society still 
> >functions. We are a people because we have a
functioning society which 
> >goes on - and has gone on for the past 54 years --
despite every sort of 
> >abuse, every cruel turn of history, every
misfortune we have suffered, 
> >every tragedy we have gone through as a people. Our
greatest victory 
> >over Israel is that people like Sharon and his kind
do not have the 
> >capacity to see that, and this is why they are
doomed despite their 
> >great power and their awful, inhuman cruelty. We
have surmounted the 
> >tragedies and memories of our past, whereas such
Israelis as Sharon have 
> >not. He will go to his grave only as an
Arab-killer, and a failed 
> >politician who brought more unrest and insecurity
to his people. It must 
> >surely be the legacy of a leader that he should
leave something behind 
> >upon which future generations will build. Sharon,
Mofaz, and all the 
> >others associated with them in this bullying,
sadistic campaign of death 
> >and carnage will have left nothing except
gravestones. Negation breeds 
> >negation. 
> > 
> >As Palestinians, I think we can say that we left a
vision and a society 
> >that has survived every attempt to kill it. And
that is something. It is 
> >for the generation of my children and yours, to go
on from there, 
> >critically, rationally, with hope and forbearance. 

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