Their "Rice" and our "flesh":
The Equation has changed
Dr. Adel Samara
http://www.kanaanonline.org/articles/00900.pdf
Even before the beginning of the occupation of Palestine 1948, our blood was always shed. The equation of our struggle has always been: "our flesh and their knife", and today it is our flesh and their "Rice". The settlers were and still are armed to their teeth, while we remain relatively unarmed.
It was impossible for Jewish settlers to colonize Palestine in the early 20th century without being brought, trained, financed and armed by the British colonial occupation, and the support of French colonialism.
Furthermore, it would have been impossible for the Zionist regime in Israel to survive without the disintegration of the Arab Homeland, its fragmentation and rule of puppet regimes that had never deviated from their loyalty to the colonial powers. The stand of these regimes against resistance in Lebanon and Palestine in the last two weeks is the unchallenged proof to my argument.
At the official level, the equation is still the same: "our flesh and their Rice-knife". It is even more disgusting: our Arab rulers, who were "made" in the capitalist west, have now ‘declared’ their loyalty to the enemy.
At the level of popular classes, however, there is a turning point, a profound change. It is the end of formal wars and the beginning of people's war. The importance of this change is that the Arab Homeland has been internally divided into two antagonistic camps: the people, at least the popular classes vs. the ruling ones. Part of the popular classes has taken the initiative for the first time and it is a matter of time when the rest will follow, and they are not in need for reasons, provocation and cause.
There is a change. For the first time Israel uses all the US military might, all the Zionist thirst for blood in Gaza and Lebanon, but with little, if any, success. This is evident at least at two main levels:
The Israeli rulers have “lost their nerves”. The reputation of their army has collapsed, the "poor" Arabs are no longer afraid, a new form of Islam is uniting the large nation for Jihad and steadfastness, the perfectly equipped army is unable to achieve a victory and its losses are exceeding those of the guerilla fighters. It is probably more complicated than the war in Vietnam.
What is to be done?
The same, more "blood and flesh" should be shed. The US ruling class commands Israeli rulers to kill and kill and kill. But, by killing more, Israel is, in fact, creating new generations of fighters.
But, now the issue transcends the traditional theory which is based on ‘kill the civilians to force them to revolt against the resistance movement’. This scenario has failed in the West Bank and Gaza and in Iraq, and it is failing in Lebanon. It fails because the local comprador capitalists are too weak, bankrupt and unable to recruit agents to fight the dirty battle.
Every thing is so strange! That is why, US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice started in Beirut by blaming the comprador capitalist government of all ‘sects’ for their failure to fight a civil war against Hizbullah in the last two years. She failed to realize, although they do, that Hizbullah is the party of the popular classes in Lebanon. It is also supported by the President, the Army chief of staff who are not Muslims. Furthermore, Hizbullah is marching to be the party of the nation from the "Ocean to the Gulf".
Rice did not spare the Palestinian leadership, when she blamed the ‘Palestinians of Oslo Accords’. The irony is while the armless people in Gaza are slaughtered by US weapons, the ‘Palestinians of Oslo’, the PA Chairman, the cream of academia and the business representative have warmly welcomed Rice!
There is really nothing in Rice's briefcase. Accordingly, it is not a matter of ‘more fire’ or ceasefire. By ‘more fire’, it is assumed, the people's enemy is in control, they are ‘managing’ the crisis. But people's fighters are just in the very beginning of solving the conflict through resistance. Resistance is possible even in the era of globalized capitalism. This is the lesson of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the US regime, the last development in Lebanon is shocking: this regime has failed to understand it in Palestine and Iraq. So, it might “absorb” it in Lebanon!
US might succeed in mobilizing some regimes to send their forces to occupy Lebanon or at least its south. But people's resistance will not accept it. Should these forces arrive to Lebanon, it will mean that the world capitalist system is fighting on behalf of Israel and this will terminate its role in the region.
The ruling class in the US designed the so-called "New Middle East", the Arab regimes have no choice, but to say ‘yes’! However, the people are resisting. Then it is a new Middle East war, between people and their rulers. It will be the most brutal and bloody war, but it will be the end of wars because the people will have the upper hand. That is why the proposed truce, US plan to occupy Lebanon via its internal agents, EU proposals, Israeli dreams, Anan's idea of merging Hizbullah's fighters into the Lebanese army…etc, are all doomed to fail. All these proposals are plans to use the military of US, EU, Arab Comprador and Turkey to fight on behalf of the Zionist army. Hizbullah will not retreat, as the guerilla fighters are inside Lebanon. It will not surrender its weapons to the puppet regime. Additionally, Arab and Muslim masses will not stand idle. New Hizbullahs will rise in the Arab Homeland.
The same Iraqi scenario will be repeated in Lebanon, but with an internal front that is entirely different: popular classes in Lebanon will not fight among each other. Moreover, the influence of their struggle might reach the Iraqis.
Two other main changes should be emphasized here:
First: The world must recognize that the Arab comprador narrative of the conflict - the conflict is about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza 1967 - is withering. Now, it is time for people's narrative, the real one: the occupation of Palestine in 1948. In people's memory, culture and aspirations, the Zionist regime must collapse and Palestine must be liberated. A new Palestine should emerge, a socialist Palestine. This is what Israelis should know and work for. Any other solution will shed more blood and delay the real and historical solution.
Second: The conflict started many years before the creation of the Zionist regime in Israel. It started with the interests of capital in the Arab region. The Zionist regime and the “Zionized” Arab ruling and comprador regimes were created to protect those interests.
It is obvious, therefore, that the Arab Homeland is in the battle field between the people and capital in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan and Lebanon. The aggression might even expand to other Arab countries. That is why, Arab people support Hizbullah. They might not defeat the ruling classes at this stage, but they will certainly revive and solidify a new movement against normalization and for boycotting the products of Israel and the imperialist center. This is simple but effective. It is a campaign that offers each citizen a role in resistance.
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