Hi. I'm listening to Amy Goodman's interview with
Pete Seeger, on the internet. It's wonderful, and I
hope you get this in time to tune in at 9am.. In LA,
on KPFK, 90.7 fm. Have a great holiday.
Ed
Agatha In The Rain
Uri Avnery
1.7.06
GUSH SHALOM
"ISRAEL HAS declared war on the Palestinian people! The
Palestinian people will answer in kind! The Palestinian
rebellion will go on! The Palestinian fighters are
steadfast in the service of the nation! Down with the
Nazi-Zionist occupation! Out with the unclean infidels
from the Holy Land! Destroyed Rafah - we shall build
you anew! Long live the Palestinian revolution! Long
live the State of Palestine!"
A Hamas leaflet of last week? Not exactly. With
appropriate changes, this leaflet was published on July
2, 1946 - sixty years ago almost to the day - by the
Jewish Haganah, after "Black Saturday".
Then, in the wake of a daring commando action by the
Palmakh ("shock troops" of the Haganah), which blew up
a number of bridges, the British government of
Palestine decided to carry out a plan prepared well in
advance. It was code-named "Agatha". On June 29, 1946,
17 thousand British soldiers fanned out all over the
Jewish towns and kibbutzim to confiscate arms and
documents and arrest the leaders of the Jewish
community. The British government affirmed its
determination to stamp out terrorism. In Jerusalem, the
soldiers occupied the headquarters of the Jewish
Agency, the de facto government of the Jewish "state
within the state", and confiscated many documents that
clearly established its close connections with the
"terrorist headquarters" - the joint command of the
Haganah, the Irgun and the Stern Group, which worked
closely together at the time.
The soldiers broke into the homes of the political
leaders of the Jewish community and arrested most of
the Jewish Agency "ministers". The leaders were
detained in Latrun. But the commanders of the
underground organizations decided to continue fighting,
in order to prove to the British that the arrest of the
leaders had not silenced them.
"Black Saturday" was a milestone in the fight against
the British. Within a year, they decided to leave the
country.
The similarity between the British "Agatha" and the
Israeli "Summer Rains" is striking. This shows that
every occupation regime is condemned to repeat the
actions of its predecessors, even when they have been
proved hopeless. This does not mean that all occupiers
are fools - only that the logic of occupation itself
condemns them to do foolish things.
THE AIM of the present operation is, ostensibly, to
free the soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by the
Palestinian underground (consisting of several
organizations), in an attack that even an Israeli
military expert called "a daring commando action".
If our army had kept its high military standard, it
would immediately have replaced all the commanders
responsible for the debacle. 50 years ago this would
have been done . But we have a different army now.
Nobody was removed. The failed commanders just called
the attack "a terrorist act", the fighters "terrorists"
and the captured soldier "kidnapped".
The action proves, of course, an old military maxim:
for every means of defense a means of attack can be
found, and vice versa. The "security" fence that
surrounds the Gaza Strip on all sides (except the sea),
the like of which is now being built inside the West
Bank, can stop thieves and people looking for work in
Israel, but not determined fighters who will always
find ways to cross it, whether from below or above.
The "kidnapped" soldier served as a pretext for an
operation which must have been prepared a long time
ago. The Israeli and international public has been told
that the aim is to set him free, but in practice it has
put his life in greater jeopardy. If the soldiers come
near to where he is hidden, he could be killed in the
cross-fire - as happened some years ago to the soldier
Nakhshon Waksman, who was captured by Hamas. He was
killed in the exchange of fire between the soldiers and
the Palestinians. Waksman would probably be alive
today, if there had been an exchange of prisoners
instead.
The connection between the "kidnapped soldier" and the
operation exists only in the realm of propaganda. The
same goes for the second pretext: that the aim is to
put an end to the launching of Qassam rockets at the
town of Sderot.
True, this is indeed an intolerable situation. The
Qassam, a simple and inexpensive weapon, causes more
panic than real damage, like the German V-rockets fired
on London in World War II. It terrorizes the
population, and that is its aim. Its purpose is to
break the devastating blockade that the Israeli
government has been maintaining against the Gaza strip
since the "disengagement". Until now, the army has not
come up with a means to put a stop to the rockets.
But the Qassams, too, are not the real cause of the
"Summer Rains" operation. Its character shows that it
has a much wider aim: to destroy the elected
Palestinian government (Israeli propaganda's "Hamas
Government") and bring the Palestinian population to
its knees. This is supposed to make it possible for the
Israeli government to carry out the "Convergence" plan,
annexing major parts of the West Bank to Israel and
preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian
state.
A clear aim, which the operation is designed to attain
by simple means: breaking the Palestinian population by
the liquidation of its leadership, destruction of its
infrastructure and cutting off of food supplies,
medicines, electricity, water and sanitary services -
not to mention employment. The message to the
Palestinians: if you want to put an end to your
suffering, remove the government you have elected.
CAN THIS succeed? Exactly like the the success of the
British operation. "Agatha" achieved the very opposite.
Like all the failures of our army over the years, from
the battle of Karameh in 1968, through the Egyptian
crossing of the canal at the beginning of the Yom
Kippur war, to the two intifadas, the reason lies with
the abysmal contempt that the army commanders hold for
the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in
particular. The Shin Bet meets the Palestinians in the
form of interrogated prisoners, who are ready to say
anything at all under torture, and the despicable
collaborators, who are ready to sell their cousins for
drugs or money. The occupation commanders cannot
imagine that the Palestinians could react like any
other people, even - God forbid! - as we did in a
similar situation. What, these pitiful Arabs are like
us?
True, the British never behaved towards us as we do now
towards the Palestinians. But on the other hand, the
Palestinians' ability to suffer oppression is much
greater than ours. It is based on the family structure
that makes for much more effective mutual help, and on
the experience of living for years in dire straits.
On "Black Saturday"' the Jewish community stood
together behind its besieged leadership. The opposition
from right and left rallied behind Ben-Gurion (who was
abroad) and Sharett (imprisoned in Latrun). Experience
shows that every people behaves like this when a
foreign enemy attacks its leadership. Hamas is almost
certain to emerge much strengthened from this test. The
arrests prove to the Palestinian public that its is a
fighting, loyal leadership, not corrupted by the
amenities of power - contrary to their predecessors,
some of whom were tainted by corruption.
The pretext for the operation - the release of the
captured soldier - will only harden the attitude of the
Palestinians. No issue is more important for them than
the release of Palestinian prisoners - a matter that
directly concerns 10 thousand Palestinian extended
families, in every town, quarter and village. These
families are prepared to suffer anything to secure
their release.
THE SECOND victim of the operation is the "Convergence
Plan", which has become ridiculous. In the eyes of the
ordinary Israeli, it looks like this: We have left
Gaza, and now we are returning. We dismantled the
settlements there, and got the Qassams on Sderot in
return. Sharon has failed, so Olmert will fail doubly.
That is true, but not for the obvious reasons. The
withdrawal from Gaza has not brought security, because
it was carried out without any dialogue or agreement
with the Palestinians. It has not brought peace nearer,
because it was coupled with an open intention to annex
large parts of the West Bank. And, no less importantly,
we did indeed leave the Gaza Strip entirely, but have
blockaded it and cut it off from the world. All this is
even more true for the "convergence" of Olmert.
The "Summer Rains" may have washed it off the map.
____________________________________________
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