The Rape Of Rafah
By Uri Avnery
5-22-4
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
generation of Palestinians to come.
* An Israeli author and activist. He is the head of the Israeli peace
movement, "Gush Shalom".
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