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http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/article187.html
23.3.02
A Queue of Bombers
Far from "destroying the infrastructure of terrorism", the generals have
built a hothouse for rearing suicide-bombers.
By Uri Avnery
When a whole people is seething with rage, it becomes a dangerous enemy,
because the rage does not obey orders.
When it exists in the hearts of millions of people, it cannot be cut off by
pushing a button.
When this rage overflows, it creates suicide bombers - human bombs fuelled
by the power of anger, against whom there is no defense. A person who has
given up on life, who does not look for escape routes, is free to do
whatever his disturbed mind dictates. Some of the suicide bombers are killed
before they reach their goal, but when there are hundreds of them, thousands
of them, no military means will restore security.
The actions of General Mofaz during the last month have brought this rage to
an unprecedented pitch and instilled it into the hearts of every
Palestinian, be he a university professor or a street boy, a housewife or a
high-school girl, a leftist or a fundamentalist.
When tanks run amok in the center of a town, crushing cars and destroying
walls, tearing up roads, shooting indiscriminately in all directions,
causing panic to a whole population - it induces helpless rage.
When soldiers crush through a wall into the living room of a family, causing
shock to children and adults, ransacking their belongings, destroying the
fruits of a life of hard work, and then break the wall to the next apartment
to wreak havoc there - it induces helpless rage.
When soldiers shoot at everything that moves - out of panic, out of
lawlessness, or because Sharon told them "to cause losses" - it induces
helpless rage.
When officers order to shoot at ambulances, killing doctors and paramedics
engaged in saving the lives of the wounded, bleeding to death - it induces
helpless rage.
When these and thousand other acts like them humiliate a whole people,
searing their souls - it induces helpless rage.
And then it appears that the rage is not helpless after all. The suicide
bombers go forward to avenge, with a whole people blessing them and
rejoicing at every Israeli killed, soldier or settler, a girl in a bus or a
youngster in a discotheque.
The Israeli public is dumbfounded by this terrible phenomenon. It cannot
understand it, because it does not know (and perhaps does not want to know)
what has happened in the Palestinian towns and villages. Only feeble echoes
of what really happened have reached it. The obedient media suppress the
information, or water it down so that the monster looks like a harmless pet.
The television, which is now subject to Soviet-style censorship, does not
tell its viewers what is going on. If somebody is allowed to say a few words
about it, for the sake of "balance", the words are drowned in a sea of
chatter by politicians, commentators acting as unofficial spokespersons and
the generals who caused the havoc.
These generals look helplessly at a struggle they do not understand and make
arrogant statements divorced from reality. Pronouncements like "We have
intercepted attacks", "We have taught them a lesson", "We have destroyed the
infrastructure of terrorism" show an infantile lack of understanding of what
they are doing. Far from "destroying the infrastructure of terrorism", they
have built a hothouse for rearing suicide-bombers.
A person whose beloved brother has been killed, whose house has been
destroyed in an orgy of vandalism, who has been mortally humiliated before
the eyes of his children, goes to the market, buys a rifle for 40 thousand
shekels (some sell their cars for this) and sets out to seek revenge. "Give
me a hatred gray like a sack," wrote our poet, Nathan Alterman, seething
with rage against the Germans. Hatred gray like a sack is now everywhere.
Bands of armed men now roam all the towns and villages of the West bank and
the Gaza strip, with our without black masks (available for 10 shekels in
the markets). These bands do not belong to any organization. Members of
Fatah, Hamas and the Jihad team up to plan attacks, not giving a damn for
the established institutions.
Anyone who believes that Arafat can push a button and stop this is living in
a dream-world. Arafat is the adored leader, now more than ever, but when a
people is seething with anger he cannot stop it either. At best, the
pressure-cooker can cool off slowly, if the majority of the people are
persuaded that their honor has been restored and their liberation
guaranteed. Then public support for the "terrorists" will diminish, they
will be isolated and whither away. That was what happened in the past.
During the Oslo period there were attacks too, but they were conducted by
dissidents, fanatics, and the public aversion to them limited the damage
they caused.
American politicians, like Israeli officers, do not understand what they are
doing. When an overbearing vice-president dictates humiliating terms for a
meeting with Arafat, he pours oil on the flames. A person who lacks empathy
for the suffering of the occupied people, who does not understand its
condition, would be well advised to shut up. Because every such humiliation
kills dozens of Israelis.
After all, the suicide-bombers are standing in line.
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