"The world stood silent, while we urged for help. The world turned their heads, while we were being slaughtered. The world turned deaf to our screams for help. They laughed with joy to the screams of pain, and sipped on their liquor while amusing themselves listening to the screams of the raped ones. They were [...]
The Palestine Strategy Study Group strongly urges fellow Palestinians to seize their destiny in their own hands by refusing even to enter these other discourses until it is appropriate to do so and to focus all their energies on explaining and promoting the prior Palestinian discourse. The appropriate discourse uses the language, not of peacemaking or statebuilding, but of national self-determination, of liberation, of emancipation from occupation, of individual and collective rights, of international law. This must be the primary discourse. Only when the priorities defined within the primary Palestinian discourse of emancipation are recognised can the hitherto rightly subordinated discourses of peacemaking and statebuilding move properly into the foreground.
It is essential in strategic thinking to take constant account of how the chessboard
looks from the perspective of the opponent. This is fundamental. A player who does not do this – who only looks at the board from its own perspective – will never be a grandmaster. Such a player will lose. The strategic purpose is to exert mounting pressure on the opponent to act as we want. This can only be done if we understand what the opponent desires and fears, and the sources and limits of the opponent’s power. The same applies to inducing third parties to behave in the ways we want them to.
The Israeli military may be much less effective in winning wars than it was in the past, thanks to the stiffness of Arab resistance. But its military strategists are as shrewd and unpredictable as ever. The recent rhetoric that has escalated from Israel suggests that a future war in Lebanon will most likely target Syria [...]
WRITTEN BY ANTOINE RAFFOUL
BACKGROUND:
In April 2002, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield by invading the Palestinian
refugee camp of Jenin, south of Nazareth. In this operation which lasted about 8 days and followed a suicide bomb attack on the Israeli town of Netanya. Israel deployed 30,000 reserve soldiers against a camp population of 33,000 refugees. It sealed [...]
“We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change or resistance. Small acts, when multiplied by many people, can transform the world”
“If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the [...]
WRITTEN BY Salim Nazzal – At the beginning I got “strange” e-mails which hinted towards assassination and the like. The Zionist character in these e-mails was obvious. I simply paid no attention. I know Zionists fear the voice of the victims. My voice is the voice of my people who were murdered and uprooted from [...]
Let Me Draw This Picture For You
Have you ever noticed that almost nothing the Palestinians and their resistance factions do is acceptable by the Palestine solidarity groups and Peace and Justice movements in the West?
Here are some of what some of this solidarity and anti war, peace organizations keep saying so they can get out [...]
Three proposals: Framing our own arguments – ignoring Zionist rhetorical traps – developing strategic thinking and implementing our strategies
While watching most Western mainstream news and current events shows, how many times do we activists for Palestine find ourselves arguing with the television, pointing our finger at the screen and saying, “NO! That’s not true,” or [...]
A contribution to Palestine Think Tank's and Tlaxcala's First Word War
Numerous books and articles have been written, guided by the main thesis that the reason for the prolonged and intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine, and which is constantly at an impasse, is that there are two “contested” histories (of Jews and Arabs in Palestine!), [...]
Two years ago today Dr. George Habash’s body left us, and since then, many books have been published about this legend El Hakeem (the doctor and the wise in Arabic), who became a beacon to freedom fighters worldwide and an Icon of steadfastness for humanity, democracy and goodwill. Dr. Habash was a visionary and a complete [...]
