Jim Devine writes: >> me: >> >> since they lack a state, it's very difficult -- if not impossible -- for >> >> Palestinians to >> articulate in practice what their collective interests, strategy, and >> tactics are.<< >> >> David B. Shemano wrote: >> > This truly makes no logical sense. If the Palestinians don't know where >> > they want to >> go, how are they going to get there? < >> >> You may have missed the phrase "in practice." It's quite possible for >> the Palestinians to have and articulate lots of ideas about collective >> interests, strategy, and tactics _in theory_, but without a state it's >> very difficult to put them _into practice_. Instead, we see such >> events as the civil war between Hamas and the PA/Fatah after Hamas won >> the election or the total lack of coordination between Hamas and the >> nuts who launch rockets into Israel from Gaza (sometimes hitting >> civilians).
You have drifted far from the point. The Al-Jazeera article was a discussion of the propriety of violent versus nonviolent resistance. I said that the propriety of a tactic should follow from the goal. You then appeared to be saying that it is too hard for the Palestinians to figure out their goals, or how to relate means to goals, which I said makes no logical sense. So, please explain again why you think it is uniquely difficult for the Palestinians to match means and ends. >> > I suppose the fact that they have made very lttle progress over the past >> > 100 years >> achieving articulated goals kind of supports your statement. However many >> other >> nationalistic movements were able to articulate interests, strategies and >> tactics without >> a state. One example would be the Zionists, so it certainly is not >> impossible to >> achieve, let alone articulate, interests, strategies and tactics.< >> >> Until the Israeli state was created, there were all sorts of different >> factions within Zionism; the Zionists' situation was like that of the >> Palestinians today in some ways. It wasn't just Menachem Begin and >> the Irgun or Yitzhak Shamir and the Stern Gang and other terrorists. >> It was also the Labor Party and other less militaristic forces. These >> groups had their little wars against each other. With the >> establishment of the Israeli state, they were able to articulate >> collective goals, strategy, and tactics in practice, uniting against >> the natives (ethnic cleansing and all that). Before 1948, the various Zionist organizations had very clear articulated goals, and their methods were directed to achieving the goals. In fact, the mainstream Zionist organizations successfully built institutions that were ready to go when the British left in 1948. The fact that the Irgun and the Stern Gang had their own strategies had no real impact on what the mainstream organizations were doing. David Shemano
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