The Long War Journal: Say UNCLE

Written by Bill Roggio on September 29, 2004 11:48 AM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2004/09/say_uncle.php

Things must be going badly for the Palestinian Authority and the Intifada when the Palestinian leadership signals how well Israeli actions are working. On the four year anniversary of the Palestinian Intifada, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie (a “moderate” according to Reuters) recognizes the shortcomings of Palestinian actions and advises Israel change to change their policies with respect to the Palestinian people.

"This anniversary should make us all -- the people, the factions and the Palestinian Authority -- reconsider the past four years, where we went wrong and where we went right," Qurie, a moderate, told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"We call upon the Israelis to reassess," he said. "Destruction of our homes and continuing the killing of our people and hunting of our activists and leaders inside (Palestinian areas) and abroad is crazy and will lead to neither security nor peace."

Qurie would be hard pressed to come up with an example of where the Palestinians went right, unless he bases his optimism on the death of a thousand Jews. His plea for Israel to change their tactics is the equivalent to a child’s cry of uncle! after being detained in a headlock for too long. Qurie is complaining because the Israeli tactics work and he knows he has lost.

Cut it off and kill it

After suffering numerous suicide attacks within Israeli borders, the Sharon government settled on a strategy to defeat the Palestinian Authority. This involves closing down the borders between Israel and the Palestinian territories via the security fence, actively hunting terrorists both at home and now abroad and isolating Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound to negate his international support. Israel has maintained control of the borders and closed them to prevent the flow of weapons and material borders from Egypt and Jordan, as well as isolated the territories from both the air and sea. Israel has decided to withdraw all settlements within Gaza as well as select settlements in the West Bank to reduce the number of attacks on citizens in the settlements as well as reduce the profile of Israel troops. The withdrawal does not prohibit raids into the territories; Israel maintains the ability to do this and exercises this option often. And Israel has implemented a controversial policy to destroy the homes of families of suicide bombers to discourage families from encouraging their children to martyr themselves.

Lash out wildly

At the start of the Intifada, the Palestinian terror organization coordinated with the Palestinian Authority and inflicted serious damage via numerous suicide attacks. Palestinian terrorists also resort to sniper, mortar and crude Qassam rocket attacks in an attempt to terrorize the Israeli people. The Palestinian Authority depends on the international community (the UN, the EU) to force Israel to surrender their security and achieve the conditions favorable to the destruction of the Israeli state.

The Failure of the Intifada

As the goal of the Palestinian Authority and various terror organizations is the destruction of Israel, not peaceful coexistence, the undisciplined Palestinian tactics could only work if the Israeli government and people lost the will to fight. Random suicide bombings, mortar and rocket attacks can never take territory, nor can these tactics defeat the overwhelming superiority of the Israeli Defense Forces. As the depravity and madness of Palestinian actions became clear, the Israelis hardened themselves to the reality of the Palestinian cause and implemented a plan to defeat it.

The results have been devastating. Hamas has been decapitated and its members are constantly hunted. The Palestinian Authority is now under assault from the various terrorist groups it suckled for all these years. Arafat has become a paper president, leading a corrupt group of unpopular warlords that cannot provide a future for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian economy has been shattered; unemployment and debt is high, and investment is non-existent. As Israel pulls its people out of Gaza, Israeli owned industry in the territory that employs thousands of Palestinians closes down. The clampdown of the Israeli – Palestinian borders prevents the flow of Palestinians seeking work in Israel proper. The Israeli raids have also begun to turn the Palestinian people against their homegrown terrorists.

Basher Hamouda, 55, who fled with his family, criticized the destruction caused by the repeated Israeli raids, but also questioned the wisdom of the Palestinian rocket attacks. The militants need "to look around and see what mortar shells and rockets brought to northern Gaza ... nothing but distractions and killing," he said.

The Palestinians’ Options

As long as the Israelis maintain their stranglehold on the Palestinian Authority and their terrorist allies, the present day strategy of the Palestinians (the Intifada) is doomed to fail. The Israelis have isolated the Palestinian Authority and pushed aside the internationals, knowing that their efforts have only led to the prolonging of violence. The Palestinians can complain all they like to the United Nations, but the UN’s ineffectiveness in other regions remains true in this conflict. The Palestinians are getting fewer opportunities to attack targets within Israel proper using suicide bombers, and will be forced to rely on long distance methods of attack, such as mortars and Qassam rockets. These weapon systems have had little impact on Israeli citizens (there have been few deaths and injuries relying on these methods) as they must be hastily set up and fired as the territories are under the watchful eye of Israeli surveillance. This leaves the attackers exposed to Israeli UAVs and helicopters. And Israel, in conjunction with the United States, is working on new technologies to destroy incoming artillery using a ground based laser. This would further negate the minimal effect of the mortar and Qassam rocket attacks. The Israelis maintain the ability to conduct raids in the territories and have no intention of halting them. As the Palestinians become less and less able to attack Israeli citizens, their options to defeat Israel go from unlikely to non-existent.

Israel's actions may seem cruel to the members of the international community, but it is because they refuse to recognize the fact that Israel and the Palestinian Authority are at war. As far as wars go, this one has been conducted humanely by the Israelis. Israel is squeezing the Palestinian Authority politically, economically and militarily without resorting to massive force and intentional targeting of civilian lives. Civilian casualties are a byproduct of war, and the international community bares responsibility for these casualties by forcing the Israelis to the negotiating table for the past decade without recognizing that the Palestinians have no intentions of a diplomatic settlement unless it leads to the destruction of the Israeli state. Israel has wisely pushed the internationals aside and are pursuing a policy conducive to victory.

As the Israelis withdraw from the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority, or what ever entity that survives the fallout, will be forced to actual provide services, utilities, jobs and security for their people. They have failed miserably at this in the past, and the Palestinian people will see the true extent of their leadership's incompetence. They will no longer have the Jews to blame for their plight (not that they still won't blame them), and if they wish to live in peace, they will be forced to form a government that can negotiate a real peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. This requires a recognition of Israel's right to exist, the rejection of the "right of return", concessions on territory to ensure Israel's security and a commitment to root out terrorist entities in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian's recognition of the futility of their efforts may take months, years, decades or longer, but the Israelis cannot let down their guard until their conditions for peace are met.