Gilad Atzmon: Living on Borrowed Time in a Stolen Land
Gilad Atzmon: Palestinian rockets a reminder the Zionist dream is over
"Israel's" deadliest tactics herald Palestinian imminent day-of-return
Source: dissidentvoice.org, 04-01-2009
By Gilad Atzmon
Communicating with "Israelis" may leave one bewildered. Even now when the "Israeli" Air Force is practicing murder in broad daylight of hundreds of civilians, elderly persons, women and children, the "Israeli" people manage to convince themselves that they are the real victims in this violent saga.
Those who are familiar intimately with "Israeli" people realise that they are completely uninformed about the roots of the conflict that dominates their lives. Rather often "Israelis" manage to come up with some bizarre arguments that may make a lot of sense within the "Israeli" discourse, yet make no sense whatsoever outside of the 'Jewish' (Zionist) street. Such an argument goes as follows: ‘those Palestinians, why do they insist upon living on our land ("Israel"), why can't they just settle in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or any other Arab country?' Another Hebraic pearl of wisdom sounds like this: ‘what is wrong with these Palestinians? We gave them water, electricity, education and all they do is try to throw us to the sea'.
Astonishingly enough, the "Israelis" even within the so-called ‘left' and even the educated ‘left' fail to understand who the Palestinians are, where they come from and what they stand for. They fail to grasp that for the Palestinians, Palestine is home. Miraculously, the "Israelis" manage to fail to grasp that "Israel" had been erected at the expense of the Palestinian people, on Palestinian land, on Palestinian villages, towns, fields and orchards. The "Israelis" do not realise that Palestinians in Gaza and in refugee camps in the region are actually dispossessed people from Ber Shive (Bir Sabeh), Yafo, Tel Kabir, Shekh Munis, Lod, Haifa, Jerusalem (al-Quds) and many more towns and villages. If you wonder how come the "Israelis" don't know their history, the answer is pretty simple, they have never been told. The circumstances that led to the "Israeli" Palestinian conflict are well hidden within their culture. Traces of pre-1948 Palestinian civilisation on the land had been wiped out. Not only the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians, is not part of the "Israeli" curriculum, it is not even mentioned or discussed in any "Israeli" official or academic forum.
In the very centre of almost every "Israeli" town (settlement) one can a find a 1948 memorial statue displaying a very bizarre, almost abstract, pipe work. The plumbing feature is called Davidka and it is actually a 1948 "Israeli" mortar cannon. Interestingly enough, the Davidka was an extremely ineffective weapon. Its shells wouldn't reach more than 300 meters and would cause very limited damage. Though the Davidika would cause just minimal harm, it produced a lot of noise. According to the "Israeli" official historical narrative, the Arabs i.e., Palestinians, (to whom the noise would have been extremely loud, compared to the relative quiet they had enjoyed for centuries) simply ran away for their lives once they heard the Davidka from afar.
According to the "Israeli" narrative, the Jews i.e., ‘new "Israelis"' did a bit of fireworks and the ‘Arab cowards' just ran off like idiots. In the "Israeli" official narrative there is no mention of the many orchestrated massacres conducted by the young "Israeli" Military Forces and the paramilitary units that preceded it. There is no mention also of the racist laws that stop Palestinians1 from returning to their homes and lands.
The meaning of the above is pretty simple. "Israelis" are totally unfamiliar with the Palestinian cause. Hence, they can only interpret the Palestinian struggle as a murderous irrational lunacy. Within the "Israeli" Judeo- centric solipsistic universe, the "Israeli" is an innocent victim and the Palestinian is no less than a savage murderer.
This grave situation that leaves the "Israeli" in the dark regarding his past demolishes any possibility of future reconciliation. Since the "Israeli" lacks the minimal comprehension of the conflict, he cannot contemplate any possible resolution except extermination or cleansing of the ‘enemy'. All the "Israeli" is entitled to know are various phantasmic narratives of Jewish suffering. Palestinian pain is completely foreign to his ears. ‘Palestinian right of return' sounds to him like an amusing idea. Even the most advanced ‘"Israeli" humanists' are not ready to share the land with its indigenous inhabitants. This doesn't leave the Palestinians with many options but to liberate themselves against all odds. Clearly, there is no partner for peace on the "Israel" side.
This week we all learned more about the ballistic capability of Hamas. Evidently, Hamas was rather restrained with "Israel" for more than a long while. It refrained from escalating the conflict to the whole of southern "Israel". It occurred to me that the barrages of Qassams that have been landing sporadically on Sderot and Ashkelon were actually nothing but a message from the imprisoned Palestinians. First it was a message to the stolen land, homes fields and orchards: ‘Our beloved soil, we didn't forget, we are still here fighting for you, sooner rather than later, we will come back, we will start again where we had stopped'. But it was also a clear message to the "Israelis". ‘You out there, in Sderot, 'Beer Sheva', Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tel Aviv and Haifa, whether you realise it or not, you are actually living on our stolen land. You better start to pack because your time is running out, you have exhausted our patience. We, the Palestinian people, have nothing to lose anymore'.
Let's face it, realistically the situation in "Israel" is rather grave. Two years ago it was Hizbullah rockets that pounded northern "Israel". This week the Hamas proved beyond doubt that it is capable of serving the South of "Israel" with some cocktail of ballistic vengeance. Both in the case of the Hizbullah and the case of the Hamas, "Israel" was left with no military answer. It can no doubt kill civilians but it fails to stop the rocket barrage. The "Israeli" Military Forces lacks the means of protecting "Israel" unless covering "Israel" with a solid concrete roof is a viable solution. At the end of the day, they might be planning just that.
But this is far from the end of the story. In fact it is just the beginning. Every Middle East expert knows that Hamas can seize control of the West Bank within hours. In fact, PA and Fatah control in the West Bank is maintained by the "Israeli" Military Forces. Once Hamas takes the West Bank, the biggest "Israeli" population centre will be left to the mercy of Hamas. For those who fail to see, this would be the end of 'Jewish' (Zionist) "Israel". It may happen later today, it may happen in three months or in five years, it isn't matter of ‘if' but rather matter of ‘when'. By that time, the whole of "Israel" will be within firing range of Hamas and Hizbullah, "Israeli" society will collapse, its economy will be ruined. The price of a detached villa in Northern Tel Aviv would equal a shed in Kiryat Shmone or Sderot. By the time a single rocket hits Tel Aviv, the Zionist dream will be over.
The "Israeli" Military Forces generals know it, the "Israeli" leaders know it. This is why they stepped up the war against the Palestinian into extermination. The "Israelis" do not plan upon invading Gaza. They have lost nothing there. All they want is to finish the Nakba. They drop bombs on Palestinians in order to wipe them out. They want the Palestinians out of the region. It is obviously not going to work, Palestinians will stay. Not only they will they stay, their day of return to their land is coming closer as "Israel" has been exploiting its deadliest tactics.
This is exactly where "Israeli" escapism comes into play. "Israel" has passed the ‘point of no return'. Its doomed fate is deeply engraved in each bomb it drops on Palestinian civilians. There is nothing "Israel" can do to save itself. There is no exit strategy. It can't negotiate its way out because neither the "Israelis" nor their leadership understand the elementary parameters involved in the conflict. "Israel" lacks the military power to conclude the battle. It may manage to kill Palestinian grassroots leaders, it has been doing it for years, yet Palestinian resistance and persistence is growing fierce rather than weakening. As an "Israeli" Military Forces intelligence general predicted already at the first Intifada. ‘In order to win, all Palestinians have to do is to survive'. They survive and they are indeed winning.
"Israeli" leaders understand it all. "Israel" has already tried everything, unilateral withdrawal, starvation and now extermination. It thought to evade the demographic danger by shrinking into an intimate cosy Jewish ghetto. Nothing worked. It is Palestinian persistence in the shape of Hamas politics that defines the future of the region.
All that is left to "Israelis" is to cling to their blindness and escapism to evade their devastating grave fate that has become immanent already. All along their way down, the "Israelis" will sing their familiar various victim anthems. Being imbued in a self-centred supremacist reality, they will be utterly involved in their own pain yet completely blind to the pain they inflict on others.
Uniquely enough, the "Israelis" are operating as a unified collective when dropping bombs on others, yet, once being slightly hurt, they all manage to become monads of vulnerable innocence. It is this discrepancy between the self-image and the way they are seen by the rest of us which turns the "Israeli" into a monstrous exterminator. It is this discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from grasping their own history, it is that discrepancy that stops them from comprehending the repeated numerous attempts to destroy their State. It is that discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from understanding the meaning of the Shoah so can they prevent the next one. It is this discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from being part of humanity.
Once again Jews will have to wander into an unknown fate. To a certain extent, I myself have started my journey a while ago.
Notes:
1. Jews only law of return; read more. [?]
Gilad Atzmon was born in "Israel" and served in the "Israeli" military. He lives in London, and is an editor at Palestine Think Tank, where this essay first appeared, and author of two novels: A Guide to the Perplexed and the recently released My One and Only Love. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe.
"Israel's" deadliest tactics herald Palestinian imminent day-of-return
Source: dissidentvoice.org, 04-01-2009
By Gilad Atzmon
Communicating with "Israelis" may leave one bewildered. Even now when the "Israeli" Air Force is practicing murder in broad daylight of hundreds of civilians, elderly persons, women and children, the "Israeli" people manage to convince themselves that they are the real victims in this violent saga.
Those who are familiar intimately with "Israeli" people realise that they are completely uninformed about the roots of the conflict that dominates their lives. Rather often "Israelis" manage to come up with some bizarre arguments that may make a lot of sense within the "Israeli" discourse, yet make no sense whatsoever outside of the 'Jewish' (Zionist) street. Such an argument goes as follows: ‘those Palestinians, why do they insist upon living on our land ("Israel"), why can't they just settle in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or any other Arab country?' Another Hebraic pearl of wisdom sounds like this: ‘what is wrong with these Palestinians? We gave them water, electricity, education and all they do is try to throw us to the sea'.
Astonishingly enough, the "Israelis" even within the so-called ‘left' and even the educated ‘left' fail to understand who the Palestinians are, where they come from and what they stand for. They fail to grasp that for the Palestinians, Palestine is home. Miraculously, the "Israelis" manage to fail to grasp that "Israel" had been erected at the expense of the Palestinian people, on Palestinian land, on Palestinian villages, towns, fields and orchards. The "Israelis" do not realise that Palestinians in Gaza and in refugee camps in the region are actually dispossessed people from Ber Shive (Bir Sabeh), Yafo, Tel Kabir, Shekh Munis, Lod, Haifa, Jerusalem (al-Quds) and many more towns and villages. If you wonder how come the "Israelis" don't know their history, the answer is pretty simple, they have never been told. The circumstances that led to the "Israeli" Palestinian conflict are well hidden within their culture. Traces of pre-1948 Palestinian civilisation on the land had been wiped out. Not only the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians, is not part of the "Israeli" curriculum, it is not even mentioned or discussed in any "Israeli" official or academic forum.
In the very centre of almost every "Israeli" town (settlement) one can a find a 1948 memorial statue displaying a very bizarre, almost abstract, pipe work. The plumbing feature is called Davidka and it is actually a 1948 "Israeli" mortar cannon. Interestingly enough, the Davidka was an extremely ineffective weapon. Its shells wouldn't reach more than 300 meters and would cause very limited damage. Though the Davidika would cause just minimal harm, it produced a lot of noise. According to the "Israeli" official historical narrative, the Arabs i.e., Palestinians, (to whom the noise would have been extremely loud, compared to the relative quiet they had enjoyed for centuries) simply ran away for their lives once they heard the Davidka from afar.
According to the "Israeli" narrative, the Jews i.e., ‘new "Israelis"' did a bit of fireworks and the ‘Arab cowards' just ran off like idiots. In the "Israeli" official narrative there is no mention of the many orchestrated massacres conducted by the young "Israeli" Military Forces and the paramilitary units that preceded it. There is no mention also of the racist laws that stop Palestinians1 from returning to their homes and lands.
The meaning of the above is pretty simple. "Israelis" are totally unfamiliar with the Palestinian cause. Hence, they can only interpret the Palestinian struggle as a murderous irrational lunacy. Within the "Israeli" Judeo- centric solipsistic universe, the "Israeli" is an innocent victim and the Palestinian is no less than a savage murderer.
This grave situation that leaves the "Israeli" in the dark regarding his past demolishes any possibility of future reconciliation. Since the "Israeli" lacks the minimal comprehension of the conflict, he cannot contemplate any possible resolution except extermination or cleansing of the ‘enemy'. All the "Israeli" is entitled to know are various phantasmic narratives of Jewish suffering. Palestinian pain is completely foreign to his ears. ‘Palestinian right of return' sounds to him like an amusing idea. Even the most advanced ‘"Israeli" humanists' are not ready to share the land with its indigenous inhabitants. This doesn't leave the Palestinians with many options but to liberate themselves against all odds. Clearly, there is no partner for peace on the "Israel" side.
This week we all learned more about the ballistic capability of Hamas. Evidently, Hamas was rather restrained with "Israel" for more than a long while. It refrained from escalating the conflict to the whole of southern "Israel". It occurred to me that the barrages of Qassams that have been landing sporadically on Sderot and Ashkelon were actually nothing but a message from the imprisoned Palestinians. First it was a message to the stolen land, homes fields and orchards: ‘Our beloved soil, we didn't forget, we are still here fighting for you, sooner rather than later, we will come back, we will start again where we had stopped'. But it was also a clear message to the "Israelis". ‘You out there, in Sderot, 'Beer Sheva', Ashkelon, Ashdod, Tel Aviv and Haifa, whether you realise it or not, you are actually living on our stolen land. You better start to pack because your time is running out, you have exhausted our patience. We, the Palestinian people, have nothing to lose anymore'.
Let's face it, realistically the situation in "Israel" is rather grave. Two years ago it was Hizbullah rockets that pounded northern "Israel". This week the Hamas proved beyond doubt that it is capable of serving the South of "Israel" with some cocktail of ballistic vengeance. Both in the case of the Hizbullah and the case of the Hamas, "Israel" was left with no military answer. It can no doubt kill civilians but it fails to stop the rocket barrage. The "Israeli" Military Forces lacks the means of protecting "Israel" unless covering "Israel" with a solid concrete roof is a viable solution. At the end of the day, they might be planning just that.
But this is far from the end of the story. In fact it is just the beginning. Every Middle East expert knows that Hamas can seize control of the West Bank within hours. In fact, PA and Fatah control in the West Bank is maintained by the "Israeli" Military Forces. Once Hamas takes the West Bank, the biggest "Israeli" population centre will be left to the mercy of Hamas. For those who fail to see, this would be the end of 'Jewish' (Zionist) "Israel". It may happen later today, it may happen in three months or in five years, it isn't matter of ‘if' but rather matter of ‘when'. By that time, the whole of "Israel" will be within firing range of Hamas and Hizbullah, "Israeli" society will collapse, its economy will be ruined. The price of a detached villa in Northern Tel Aviv would equal a shed in Kiryat Shmone or Sderot. By the time a single rocket hits Tel Aviv, the Zionist dream will be over.
The "Israeli" Military Forces generals know it, the "Israeli" leaders know it. This is why they stepped up the war against the Palestinian into extermination. The "Israelis" do not plan upon invading Gaza. They have lost nothing there. All they want is to finish the Nakba. They drop bombs on Palestinians in order to wipe them out. They want the Palestinians out of the region. It is obviously not going to work, Palestinians will stay. Not only they will they stay, their day of return to their land is coming closer as "Israel" has been exploiting its deadliest tactics.
This is exactly where "Israeli" escapism comes into play. "Israel" has passed the ‘point of no return'. Its doomed fate is deeply engraved in each bomb it drops on Palestinian civilians. There is nothing "Israel" can do to save itself. There is no exit strategy. It can't negotiate its way out because neither the "Israelis" nor their leadership understand the elementary parameters involved in the conflict. "Israel" lacks the military power to conclude the battle. It may manage to kill Palestinian grassroots leaders, it has been doing it for years, yet Palestinian resistance and persistence is growing fierce rather than weakening. As an "Israeli" Military Forces intelligence general predicted already at the first Intifada. ‘In order to win, all Palestinians have to do is to survive'. They survive and they are indeed winning.
"Israeli" leaders understand it all. "Israel" has already tried everything, unilateral withdrawal, starvation and now extermination. It thought to evade the demographic danger by shrinking into an intimate cosy Jewish ghetto. Nothing worked. It is Palestinian persistence in the shape of Hamas politics that defines the future of the region.
All that is left to "Israelis" is to cling to their blindness and escapism to evade their devastating grave fate that has become immanent already. All along their way down, the "Israelis" will sing their familiar various victim anthems. Being imbued in a self-centred supremacist reality, they will be utterly involved in their own pain yet completely blind to the pain they inflict on others.
Uniquely enough, the "Israelis" are operating as a unified collective when dropping bombs on others, yet, once being slightly hurt, they all manage to become monads of vulnerable innocence. It is this discrepancy between the self-image and the way they are seen by the rest of us which turns the "Israeli" into a monstrous exterminator. It is this discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from grasping their own history, it is that discrepancy that stops them from comprehending the repeated numerous attempts to destroy their State. It is that discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from understanding the meaning of the Shoah so can they prevent the next one. It is this discrepancy that stops "Israelis" from being part of humanity.
Once again Jews will have to wander into an unknown fate. To a certain extent, I myself have started my journey a while ago.
Notes:
1. Jews only law of return; read more. [?]
Gilad Atzmon was born in "Israel" and served in the "Israeli" military. He lives in London, and is an editor at Palestine Think Tank, where this essay first appeared, and author of two novels: A Guide to the Perplexed and the recently released My One and Only Love. Atzmon is also one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe.
