Other Voices on Gaza - Nonviolent Escalation and No Pity

Here are two opinion pieces presented side by side, as a way of expanding the terms of debate. First, a relatively unimportant Israeli columnist on Israel's YNet tells the world, and the Israeli peace camp - don't pity the Palestinians:

Just as a crying baby who only elicits pity will continue to cry, the citizens of Gaza will continue to cry out to the world instead of taking matters into their own hands. As long as they are told that they are helpless victims or mere pawns at the hands of terrorists, Gazans will only see their suffering prolonged.

This article is being linked to elsewhere, and for good reason. Interested observors are hearing the Israeli official spin and wonder - what do Israelis really think, when they aren't speaking to the foriegn press? Of course no single opinion can represent the diversity of Israeli opinion, but this column does shed some light on the outrageous racism and inhumanity still common in the Israel public.

In marked contrast, check out Ziyaad Lunaat, writing over at the Electronic Intifada. As I read, I was thinking, blah blah blah Israel is awful and the Arab regimes are undemocratic collaborationists with America and the Zionist entity. Yawn. But then at the end, signs of new thinking:

The time has come for the Palestinian factions to unite behind the popular masses, for active and passive legitimization of Israel's actions to stop and for a return to basics. Resistance to Israel's occupation can most effectively be done through a nonviolent struggle calling for equal rights to that of their Israeli occupiers under one secular state. It is time that we extend the basic premise the West has insisted upon for themselves: that freedom is non-negotiable.

Count me as agreeing with half that statement, but very friendly towards folks who say the whole thing. Maybe I'm not a supporter of the one secular state solution, but I do think that Palestinian political advances will either be won through nonviolent action, or third party intervention. Just imagine: if the Palestinians in the OT united in a ceasefire and engaged in imaginative nonviolent resistance, they would likely cut through Israeli like a hot knife through butter. I'm not sure I'd care what the slogan or political goal was.

If the Palestinians united in this way, I and many others would join them even if they were demanding a monarchy led by Ahmed Yassin's ghost. Hey one-staters: kindly divert you efforts from talking about how many states is the preferred number, and focus on tactics and strategy.  Until then, let's all fantasize together:

"Today a former Hamas militant leader announced that he rejects violence and will henceforth only engage in nonviolent resistance aimed at one secular state in which Palestinians will live in peace alongside the Zionist enemy, er, our future Jewish fellow citizens. Except they won't be 'Jewish' citizens, just citizens."