By Mahmoud Al Abed
English News Editor
Albawaba.com - Amman
Covering a dawn attack on Gaza by Israeli helicopter gunships, Palestinian TV last week showed a familiar scene: hundreds of Palestinians gathering at the scene, struggling to find survivors beneath the shattered remains of civilian buildings.
A young resident interviewed by the station recounted the attack.
“We heard the missile while it was still in the air…it hit, children panicked, and we went out to see what was happening…we counted them, one, two, three…eight missiles hit the neighborhood…”
An ordinary account of one of dozens of similar attacks. Israel has billed them as assaults on Palestinian security posts, but in reality, they have unintentionally razed private homes, killing or wounding ordinary people, including babies.
The most interesting part of the young man’s account was about going out to see the missiles hitting the area, rather than taking shelter, a decision that added to the strong possibility that he himself might be among those killed.
President Yasser Arafat was not wrong when he described the Palestinians as “the bravest people.”
The man on Palestinian TV reminds us of the reporting on Iraq’s 39 Scud attacks on Israel. It was said that Palestinians stood on the rooftops, welcoming the Iraqi missiles as they arced towards Israeli targets a few kilometers to the west, well aware that a missile launched from 1,000-plus kilometers away might err and fall on them.
On the other side of the fence, Israelis were diving into shelters.
Arafat knows this very well, and is fully aware that Israel has used every hi-tech weapon at its disposal, except its nuclear arsenal, to make Palestinians “kneel down.”
And failed.
Sharon’s predecessor, Ehud Barak, recognized that mere death was not enough to frighten Palestinians.
“If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...” Barak told the Associated Press last November.
Whether Israel decides to kill 200 -- or 2,000, or 2 million -- there is a renewable weapon the occupiers cannot afford: the bodies of suicide bombers.
We are told that the Muslim caliphs in the Islamic golden age used to address their enemies with a single message: I shall send to you soldiers who love to die as much as you love to survive.
Sharon can use F-16s, heavy artillery, and even utilize the capabilities of the Dimona nuclear weapons plant. Regardless, the Palestinians will not kneel down, and the Israelis will never enjoy security.
A word of advice to thugs: get the hell out of our land and holy places, and live in peace thereafter. Then, the only thing you will have to do is to go after the people responsible for building collapses in which innocent and peaceful citizens are killed.
