Thursday, August 17, 2006

Israel vs Hizbollah : Lessons for Palestinians.

Described by Al-Jazeera as the 'sixth war' between ' Arabs ' and ' Israel ', the outcome of this war was unexpected for ' Arabs ' as well as for ' Israel ' ! During more than one month of intense 'military operations', the Hizb sustained raining northern Israel ( including Cities, Villages, military bases, Airports and other military targets ) with an average of 200 Katushas per day. This was viewd by the Israeli people as a 'big failure' , while a 'victory' by the Hizb and his supporters .

Away from analyzing this 'war' as a 'defeat' or a 'victory' for the Hizb or Israel , let's have a look at the lessons Palestinians should learn from this 'war'.

First : All that matters during confrontation is unity. In lebanon there are many ethnic and religious backgrounds with different, and sometimnes opposing, interests. We have the Shiaas, Sunnis, Christians ( many groups ). There are parties that have close military and friendly relations with France, Syria and Iran, USA, and possibly others. During this war, they were all ( Muslims and Christians ) UNITED under the Government that has been elected by the whole lebanese People. Even the Hizb showed much unity and respect to the governments positions ( AFTER the erruption of the war ). In Palestine we have theree major important players : Hamas, Fatah, and the Islamic Jihad. Aside from publicly criticizing each other, there were many incidents of internal fighting between these three fractions which led to the killing of tens of Palestinians ( especially in Gaza ). At the time when Fatah was forming the Government, Hamas never stopped its military 'resistance' against occupation and that surely had a very negative impact on the whole Palestinian cause.

Second : There was a solid system of reporting and documenting the Israeli violations of Human rights ( shelling civilians, using internationally banned weapons, etc ). Although we have been in confrontation with Israel for tens of years , and we were occupying the biggest spaces in all international media, we never seemed to be organized or systematic. There NEVER appeared to be enough interest in documenting the Israeli violations. We cannot see much focus on exposing the violations of the Israeli army to the international community. There are severe and serious defects in the Palestinian media and it has never proven ( to the world ) to be reliable or objective. Actually peace organizations , especially Israeli ones, gained popularity and respect in the international media. Israeli Organizations lile Betselem, Peace Now, ICAHD, and PHR are doing OUR jobs instead of us. What is more catastrophic is that we are stil totally UNAWARE of these important issues, and the kidnapping of the 2 reporters in Gaza this week proofs my point.


Third : We could easily see that there is a 'civil society' in Lebanon. Many civil organizations were immediately carrying out plans to help the refugees. Hundreds of volunteers were working to keep order in Beirot, others were helping families through supplying food and shelter. Almost all ministries were taking an active part in overcomming the crisis. During my observation of the last 10 years of confrontation in Palestine, I never saw any 'true' efforts to build any ' NGOs' or 'Support Systems' for the government. Almost all Palestinian Hospitals lack ANY real emergency plans ( even on the pure medical level ). All efforts are put on taking more support from donating countries, but SURELY no one sees any REAL improvements in the SYSTEM.


Fourth : This war has showed that no one really wins a war. Israel has lost a lot, Lebanon surely lost more. This was a huge moral defeat to Israel, it showed that arrogance can work SOMETIMNES but not always. The Israeli army thought it could win the war in few days or one or two weeks at the most, and the political leadership was , as usual, trusting the IDF. They never wanted to look at the situation ( in lebanon, Palestine, and Occupied Syrian land ) in a fair and logical way. They knew they could get it ALL through power, and ONLY power..and they went for it... but this time it simply did not work !
We, as Palestinians, cannot have our rights back through force. We do not have the resources nor the ability that enables us to stand in front of Israel, but we surely can defeat them badly when it comes to the moral , human, and legal issues. We never invested REAL efforts in trying these latter weapons against Israel, actually we never invested any effort in doing ANYTHING , other than calling for more donations and more financial support.

Israel, on the other hand, has a strong system that can know exactly where the shortcommings are, learns from mistakes, and refines the performance of all the subsystems so as to learn from mistakes and 'upgrade' and refine the performance. Are we doing the same ??

Finally : it is very clear that we are far away from being professional in almost every aspect of civil life. We never put true efforst in building institutions. We even do not have enough schools and hospitals to work in the most peaceful situations. Most schools are working on a 2 shift basis and many many other hospitals are suffering serious administrative and medical problems that are ranking them as 'defective' even at ordinary loads.

It is time for us to stop talking about the history, stop analyzing and commenting on other people's affairs, and WORK serioussly, at least for ONE time, to solve our OWN problems with our OWN hands.

26 Comments:

At 5:00 PM, August 17, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good to see you posting again Osaid... and I love the new look of your page.
There are great disappointments on both sides of this 'war'... it ended as it started with no results except alot of innocent dead and billions of dollars worth of destruction to property.
Israelis are disgusted at this point with the government... a record number of IDF soldiers were killed just the last few hours of the 'war' after the annoncement of a ceasefire coming into effect Monday morning.It was a senseless attempt to prove nothing!
Lebanon is suffering.. entire cities have become deserted as homes were destroyed, places of work destroyed... lives destroyed.
There will be a resentment against Israel for years to come as a result of this.
No one was the victor of this 'war', not Israel, not Lebanon, and surely not Hizbollah. But, the united States profited greatly from the sale of arms to Israel... that fact must never be overlooked.
As far as lessons learned by Palestinians... the biggest one should be that Israel has the backing of the United States.... A fact that must be remembered.

 
At 5:53 PM, August 17, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The chief lesson should be that the Israeli public is waking up the cynical use of human shields (what you call "Israeli atocities") by the terrorists... and it's reaching the conclusion that we'd better stop fucking around and kill the terrorists despite the human shields.

Another interesting conclusion is that the Israelis are unlikely to let the 5th column operate in their midst for much longer. You and your ilk might want to look into that, desertpeace - the people who have ignored you until now are contemplating getting things into their own hands.
Beware of walls.

So, what's going to happen now? The Israeli government will be replaced by someone with more backbone. And in the next conflict, expect no misguided mercy - especially if the next war will be opened with an Iranian nuke on Jerusalem on August 22nd.

 
At 7:04 PM, August 17, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Racoon... you frighten me... not with your threats, but with your ignorance.

 
At 8:45 PM, August 17, 2006, Blogger S.pet said...

I second that, desertpeace.

 
At 9:05 PM, August 17, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Threats? I made no threats - I am merely trying to predict the future.

Ignorance? Pray enlighten me.

 
At 11:32 PM, August 17, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you SPet...
as for you Racoon... I can't waste precious time on you... there are walls to be knocked down.

 
At 12:56 AM, August 18, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

~~~~~we surely can defeat them badly when it comes to the moral , human, and legal issues.~~~~~


Except for the "defeat" part (I think nobody should "defeat" the other, but find ways to live in peace with each-other) I'm happy to see that you've reached my conclusion when I think of solutions (the ONLY solution) to this conflict.

To resist with higher moral values is in my eyes that much stronger than violence (certainly if you are weaker militarily spoken).....

Who could resist higer moral values for obtaining one's freedom and rights?

I'm glad to "know" you, Osaid :) Take care & stay safe
Tse.

 
At 2:05 AM, August 18, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

Btw: I forgot to compliment you on the new outlook of your blog:

Mazzaltov :) looks great.

Tsse.

 
At 7:16 AM, August 18, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hello from canada. Interesting page u have here, just wanted to comment about the yankee profiting thing ... ok that may be a given, but, who's profiting from all the arms sold to the hezb. ??
I think, and this is merely my opinion, the whole world needs to take a deep breath, give it's colllective head a shake, and wake up - peace through superior firepower just doesn't work, what DOES work is education, understanding, and tolerance.
peace to all

 
At 7:36 AM, August 18, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice post Kev.

 
At 3:23 PM, August 18, 2006, Blogger Osaid Rasheed said...

Job :
This war also showed how that arrogance does NOT work too.
Kev : Nice post , and welcome to my blog :)

Tsedek and DP : Thanks :)

 
At 4:47 PM, August 19, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

In re: but we surely can defeat them badly when it comes to the moral, human, and legal issues.

The Palestinians have a long way to go, think leopard changing spots, before being able to win in any of those ways. And that's the problem, they don't see that and end up electing terrorists to lead their governmental bodies. I really wish peace on the good Palestinians wanting a good life but not at the expense of killing innocents and thinking those barbaric acts are to be cheered.

 
At 4:02 PM, August 20, 2006, Blogger best modern design said...

Just thought I would say how much I liked reading your blog and the comments. I have been following the war from Australia.
Apartheid in South Africa was defeated internationally, Zionism needs to be defeated the same way. I see many similarities.

 
At 4:37 PM, August 20, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Israel vs Hezbollah - lessons for Israel

I believe that the primary lesson for Israel is a difficult spiritual one. I highlight it here, because I believe if our Palestinian neighbours can have the same insight into one of our challenging spiritual questions, we can better understand each other.

I believe that the reactions in Israel to the aftermath of this war are quite revealing. Even before the dust settled, the soul searching, recriminations and an investigative committee are all probing, why did we do so poor militarily and how can we ensure a more effective trouncing the next time.

The reason why every question in Israel revolves around military security can be found in the long and tortuous history of the Jewish people. Survival was the key and the primary directive.

Unfortunately, as we move forward, the strength which allowed us to survive to this day has long ago become a roadblock in seeking a prosperous and peaceful future in the Middle East.

For a more extensive treatment of this dillemma, take a look at today's entry in my blog (linked via my name).

 
At 1:31 AM, August 21, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

Unfortunately, as we move forward, the strength which allowed us to survive to this day has long ago become a roadblock in seeking a prosperous and peaceful future in the Middle East.
==================================

That is soooo true :(

Tse.

 
At 5:16 AM, August 21, 2006, Blogger Jennifer said...

Hizbollah has endangered the lives of the people of Lebanon -- in some cases people who elected them to be their representatives in government.

The question no one seems to ask is why -- WHY did Hizbollah take those soldiers, knowing that it would bring military response from Israel. The Cease-fire agreement doesn't even address the return of those two soldiers -- ostensibly the reason Israel responded.

No one won ANYTHING in this conflict -- and the world, with their happy community intervention plan, has only guaranteed more terrorism unleashed because it showed that it will accept the terrorism but intervene to prevent and stop a response of force.

Also intereting to me is that apparently innocent lives (and I truly mean innocent) in the Middle East are worth more than innocent lives in Africa where the world stood by and watched as nearly 1 million innocents were slaughtered -- in fact more than that if you take your pick of the many conflicts there (I refer only to Rwandi.)

What about the innocents who are killed by terrorist groups every year? Hizbollah is one of the most lethal terrorist groups out there -- where are the people who cry out for the innocents who die when the bombs go off?

Where is the criticism for Hizbollah hiding among CIVILIANS, for God's sake.. for hiding their weapons and headquarters in heavily civilian-populated areas??>

It doesn't upset me that Israel is critiqued for actions taken, but what really is disconcerning is that there is little criticism of Hizbollah's tactics being criticized -- even by the people they are putting in danger.

Something is really amiss here.

 
At 10:30 PM, August 21, 2006, Blogger The Sphinx said...

Very good points made there, Osaid. Kudos :)

 
At 5:59 PM, August 25, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 6:00 PM, August 25, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

Osaid, here's an article I would like you to comment on, if possible, please. Please forget "who" is writing it, just look at "what" he's writing, and please let me know what you think of this.

Thanks,
Tse.

PS ~~~ where ARE you???

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/19880

 
At 7:36 PM, August 25, 2006, Blogger Tsedek said...

Osaid I've put this article up on my blog after all, maybe, if you could be so kind, you could react there to it, so more opinions will be, hopefully, under "one roof",
Thx
Tse.

 
At 12:28 AM, August 29, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice post Jennifer

 
At 7:27 AM, September 07, 2006, Blogger BHCh said...

It is true that occasionally Israel becomes a little arrogant. As luck would have it, it does not last. Israel has it's kind neighbours to thank for that.

 
At 5:20 AM, September 14, 2006, Blogger he who is known as sefton said...

. PRINCIPLE INSPIRES ..
. .. . . PRACTICALITY REQUIRES .

 
At 9:12 PM, September 15, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is an iteresting post, expecially regarding the problems of Palestinian media and advocacy groups.

In my job, I am constantly comfronted with problems some of my associates have in communicating their message. People forget that so many outsiders really don't know whats going, and for this reason how you present your argument becomes so important.

(that said I have been criticised with my style)

Anyway, I found this post to be thought provoking.

 
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At 6:30 AM, November 12, 2010, Anonymous insurance quotes said...

The people who have ignored you until now are contemplating getting things into their own hands. This war also showed how that arrogance does NOT work too.

 

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