Doves and Hawks

Doves and hawks

It is perplexing to observe the “soft-zionist” or the upholders of “post-zionism”, the “doves” of the “peace camp”, exerting tremendous effort to "teach" Palestinians the ethics of "non-violent resistance":

How to "resist” sadistic soldiers with peaceful smiles

How to silence machineguns with intelligent argument

How to face lethal bullets with colourful banners

How to stop tanks with bare hands

How to fend off F16 with debka dance and folklore songs

How to subdue a nihilist army with hospitality

How to freeze an apache helicopter by “shooting” a movie of its actions

How to receive thieves as lawful owners

How to welcome baby-killers as good friends and righteous neighbours

How to embrace armed invaders with open arms






How to accept and befriend fanatic supremacists (those who invade fully-armed, fully-trained ready to kill, whether they arrived yesterday, today or even tomorrow) as honourable citizens with equal rights



Instead of wasting their time and energy preaching to the oppressed how to defend themselves "non-violently", the "me-peacers" aught to be teaching their own society how to conduct their daily lives without aggression and non-violence

Instead of condemning the self-defence of armed resistance as "terrorism", they aught to be condemning the very violent creation and existence of their own terrorist state, founded by theft, terrorism, ethnic cleansing and slow genocide

How could anyone with a thread of moral fiber condemn self-defence when one's very life is threatened with extermination?

One can only imagine what would the reaction of those “peace-campers” be in a hypothetical situation, wherein they and their children are attacked by heavily armed gangsters, would they stand peacefully waving their banners to face the bullets? Would they sit and write a petition against the actions of the attackers then pass it around to be signed? Or would they run to their guns to defend themselves and protect their children?


While the “doves” persist to “educate” Palestinians with all that stuff, their “hawks” brethren continue to push their agenda, advance their military power, refine their plans, intensify their aggression, expand their control, extend their influence, and spread their hasbara.

The hawks continue to teach their future-invader children how to perfect the use of machineguns, how to become good-sharpshooters, how to gun down a mother and baby with one bullet, how to make life even more unbearable for Palestinians that they leave, how to finish off the ethnic-cleansing of Palestine, and how to wrap up their zionist project by forging more documents, stealing more land and creating more irreversible facts on the grounds!

It works mighty well between those two seemingly opposite poles; the harmonious duo complements each other magnificently!!
While one team is busy doing the “dirty work”, the other rolls its sleeves to clean up the mess and put the makeup on.



In short, while “soft” zionists are busy “teaching” Palestinians the “art of peace-making”, their brethren are working tirelessly teaching themselves the “art of war"

And as a Palestinian once said, "the hawks want to eat us with bare hands, while the doves want to eat us with knives and forks"



In that context the Zionist Mossad motto “by deception we wage war” fits perfectly with the saying of Sun Tzu “Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"




Finally, I would draw to the attention of the reader some quotes of Gandhi that many don’t like to mention or even remember:

Gandhi Quotes:

“ I WOULD risk violence a thousand times rather than risk the emasculation of a whole race.”

“I have been repeating over and over again that he who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or their honour by non-violently facing death may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do neither of the two is a burden. He has no business to be the head of a family. He must either hide himself, or must rest content to live for ever in helplessness and be prepared to crawl like a worm at the bidding of a bully”

“Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defence or for the defence of the defenceless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission. The latter befits neither man nor woman. Under violence, there are many stages and varieties of bravery. Every man must judge this for himself. No other person can or has the right”

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Again: armed and non-violent resistance!!!

Adib S. Kawar  

Through out the history of the Arab Zionism struggle, it was proved that the Zionist movement was and is still adamant to uproot every Palestinian and some other Arabs and replace them with Zionist colonizers in their homes and land. This is the ultimate Zionist goal.

The moment the Zionist entity occupied in 1967 the mere 22%, which was left of Palestine (The West Bank and the Gaza Strip) after the so-called war of independence of 1948, it started colonizing the left over of Palestine.

We all know that non-violent resistance started only during the what is known as the first INTIFADAH, while armed resistance, which some people call violent resistance (Zionists and Americans and some others call it terrorism) and we are sure that Dr. Hannan Ashrawi, who calls for non-violent resistance, is fortunate enough to be still living even in occupied Palestine; so we don't have to teach the teacher of what is going on there.

The Apartheid wall, which is called by the Zionist entity leaders, the separation wall, is only temporary in the sense that those Palestinians who are not yet in the diaspora will be walled in ghettos to make life impossible for them to finally decide to quit their land and homes, or what Zionists call "voluntary transfer". Then and only then the apartheid wall will be dismantled. If we want to give up Palestine on a gold platter to Zionist occupation, those Arabs who are still in Palestine should be ordered to "behave well", and be satisfied with resisting Zionist occupation with their greatest and most sophisticated weapon proposed by pacifists, stone throwing, then they will be thrown out of their homes again sooner then expected!!! 

Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by Zionist extremists, even though he ordered his soldiers to break the limbs of teen age stone throwers, if they escape being killed by fire arms, just because those extremists thought he was willing to compromise with Arabs and let some of them stay in their homes.

In 1982 the Zionist entity occupied about half of Lebanon, massacring in the process more that twenty thousand Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians, and committed the Sabra and Shatila massacre plus others, but when few of their soldiers and officers were hunted by the Lebanese resistance fire, they went around in the streets of Beirut with their loud speakers  pleading to the resistance not to target Zionist occupation men, promising to withdraw from Beirut within two days, which they did.

Twenty two years later the Zionist occupation army was forced by the relentless Lebanese resistance to withdraw from South Lebanon, or what they called "The Security Belt". For sure the occupation army with its puppet "South Lebanon Army" was at least one hundred times stronger in numbers and armament than the Lebanese resistance, but they had to evacuate without use of negotiations with their tails between the hind legs, why? Because they could not bear with the casualties they suffered. The Zionist occupation forces withdrew without notifying their SLA collaborators whom they left behind to face their fate.

During WWII the French resistance, which was equally weaker in armament, like the Lebanese resistance, inflicted heavy losses on the notorious German Nazi occupation army with it French collaborators, and its assistance was of great value for the allied forces that liberated France and then the rest of Europe.

The Vietnamese and Algerian resistance, the first was able to defeat the French occupation army, and later the mightiest army in the history of the world, the American army, which had to withdraw after very heavy casualties (also not as a result of negotiations!!!). As for Algerian resistance, which even though lost about a million martyrs, but due to inflicting heavy losses on the strong French army and the equally brutal settlers (colonialist) like Zionist colonialists, the Algerians were able to liberate what French colonialists considered as an integral part of Main land France.

Again the American coalition armies in Iraq were not received with rice and flowers, which they expected the Iraqis would shower them with, instead they were showered with all sort of armament, although not as sophisticated as what the occupiers possess. The occupation army had already declared the "liberation" of Falloujah and other Iraqi cities several times, but what!... The Americans invaded Iraq claiming that they came to liberate it but what... At what price is this liberation costing both the occupier and the occupied... up till now more than a hundred thousand Iraqi martyrs fell in about a year and a half after the invasion, this in addition to the casualties they left behind after their 1991 invasion, and the hundreds of thousands of deformed newly born babies as the result of the uranium depleted ammunitions the Americans bombarded the Iraqis with, plus the half million indirect infant casualties due to malnutrition, which was a result of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq. Iraqi armed resistance against the mightiest army in the world is paying off, and Americans are already biting their nails.

Just for a reminder, Zionist leaders are not trying to hide their role in driving the United States of America to invade Iraq, because they thought it was the biggest threat to their security. Then what type of resistance Iraqis should face the occupation armies with, civil resistance or armed resistance? If they chose the second alternative they will be permanently occupied by "their liberators"!!!

Lets return to Palestine, and the Gaza strip, and remember what Sharon said about the Zionist colonies he planted in it, which he considered to be as dear to him as Tel Aviv itself, Sharon who drove his colonizers to build colonies on every hill, this same Sharon is withdrawing, under the threat of the Palestinian armed resistance, of course not willingly, from the Gaza Strip unilaterally. Of course he intends to make of this withdrawal a smoke screen to get almost full hold of the West Bank, but with armed resistance it will finally be liberated, and his strongest and mightiest army in the region and one of the few strongest armies in the world, shall also withdraw.

Unless the ZioAmerican plan to control all the Arab land from the gulf to the ocean is met with armed resistance than we are finished once and for ever.

Some Palestinians want to apply Gandhi's non-violent resistance, but I believe that they are trying to fool themselves, if they pretend not to see the difference between Palestinians facing Zionist occupation and aggression and its type of colonialism, and the British colonialist rule of India. The British occupation army counted about 70,000 men, and their armament compared to the Israeli Occupation Army is too primitive. India's population at the time was 300,000,000 people, while at the moment there are in Palestine more Zionists than Palestinian Arabs both living in an area of about 27,000 sq. kms, compared with the vast area of the Indian subcontinent. But the most important difference is that the British type of colonialism, which was the traditional type of exploiting the land and its cheep labor, while Zionist colonialism is the type that aims at, as we mentioned above, uprooting every Palestinian from his land, and replace him with a Zionist colonizers: so the only way to stay in our land is to:

Keep the armed INTIFADAH alive.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Walking the wall: Comedian Mark Thomas interviewed

Kevin Squires, The Electronic Intifada, 13 April 2011

Mark Thomas walked all 732 kilometers of Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank. (Image courtesy of Mark Thomas)

Last month, Mark Thomas, the English "activist-comedian," was in Dublin performing his new live show Extreme Rambling: Walking Israel's Barrier. For Fun. The show (and accompanying book and film) has its sights trained on Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank. Thomas recounts his experiences of walking its full 723 kilometer route -- from detentions by the Israeli military, to encounters with Palestinians from all walks of life, to conversations with settlers and officials.

For Thomas, comedy is not merely a passive medium. "I think it's pointless for me to do this stuff unless it's part of some process of change," he says. "There has to be a purpose to art." Indeed, his record speaks to this. Over the past two decades he has confronted power, exposed corruption and fought oppression -- from Britain, to Western Sahara, to Kurdistan, to Indonesia -- and on several occasions has won victories. "I love the fact that when people go, 'Well, what good has come from your work?' I've got a small list I like to look at," he laughs.

He is also eager to point out that "What I do isn't stand up. It has a foot in theatre and a foot in comedy. But it's not stand up. It's about getting out, telling the stories and taking people on a journey, somewhere they didn't necessarily expect to go."

It's not the first time Thomas has taken on the Palestinian issue, previously having campaigned against Britain's arms trade with Israel, and "a successful embarrassment of the Israeli embassy" after they had agreed to pay the family of Tom Hurndall -- the International Solidarity Movement activist shot in the head by the Israeli military in Gaza in April 2003, who died after nine months in a coma -- some of the cost of transporting him back to England. "The check bounced! So we organized a bring-and-buy sale to save Israel from going bust," Thomas explains.

However, the tactics of the second intifada made Thomas reluctant to engage fully with the issue. "It made me switch off," he says. "I did carry on with the arms trade stuff, but the second intifada was this huge bloody mess. I mean the suicide bombs were horrendous, of course there is disproportionate [Israeli] abuse of human rights, but that doesn't excuse it on any count."

So what shook him out of his relative complacency? "Operation Cast Lead," Israel's winter invasion of Gaza in 2008-09 that left more than 1,400 dead. Thomas describes the invasion as Israel "dropping banned weapons on a captive civilian population, just hugely cruel." This reawakened interest, coupled with his love of rambling and natural trouble-making instinct, saw Thomas and his cameraman Phil embark on a nine week trek along Israel's wall.

With regard to the book (of which the live show is a condensed version), the journey chronicles the grim reality of Israel's wall that strangles the life from Palestinians living in its shadow. While this could be just another tale of woe, Thomas' clever and sardonic wit, righteous anger and frequent self-depreciation make the book an enjoyable read -- funny and tragic in equal measure.

He tells me that the journey was "very much about the people I met." True to this, traveling from the northern West Bank to the south, Thomas interviews a wide range of individuals. From nonviolent resistance activists like Jamal Juma'a to Palestinian workers who "illegally" cross into Israel. He meets Palestinian children who have to share their route to school with human excrement while also interviewing Israeli settlers like Arieh King who believes the wall is "apartheid against Jews" because it prevents him from buying property in the occupied West Bank. Thomas also encounters Israeli anti-occupation activists and meets Colonel Danny Tirza, the man who plotted the wall's route and remains immensely proud of this ignoble achievement. He also has frequent run-ins with the Israeli military, and explains "why do you think it took nearly nine weeks? Because we kept getting detained!"

Extreme Rambling is also cautiously optimistic. While Thomas feels that "everyone is a bit shattered, just keeping their heads above water," he is convinced that Israel's wall is an unsustainable venture and will eventually be brought down. He also found himself inspired by the nonviolent resistance in Palestinian villages like Bilin and Budrus. "It's really exciting, incredible! The national leadership is fucked, on both sides, but the grassroots stuff, that's what's really interesting. The community leadership and action coming out is just superb," he exclaims. On the Israeli side he has praise for the organizations Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Anarchists Against the Wall and Breaking the Silence.

Thomas adds that "I love that people are quite honest about their approach to nonviolence. Lots of people were saying 'it's the way to change things,' others would say 'I was in jail, we started discussing Gandhi, we're not winning militarily, we need to change tack' and others would say 'we're giving it a go because violence hasn't worked.' People were very honest about it, and I was fascinated by the fact that there was discussion all along the walk about nonviolent resistance and what it meant. Whether it was talking about 'unarmed' versus 'nonviolent' resistance, or campaigning work, or attacking Zionism's theological underpinnings through the Kairos Palestine document or what have you."

One of Extreme Rambling's major triumphs is its portrayal of ordinary Palestinians. They are not faceless statistics, nor meek and passive victims. Rather, the Palestinians that Thomas encounters are real people with aspirations and everyday problems who form part of a vibrant society and culture of resistance. Of course their lives are infinitely complicated by Israel's occupation -- of which the wall is merely a concrete manifestation -- but their struggle continues. In this respect it is reminiscent of Joe Sacco's excellent works of comic book journalism, Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza.

Similarly, to someone whose knowledge of Israel's occupation is limited to news headlines, it illustrates the depressing, mundane reality for Palestinians of the "everyday occupation." Thomas recounts the nightmarish task of simply going to school, work, or the hospital as well as the realities of state-support for the settler movement. He also describes the daily humiliation Palestinians experience at Israeli checkpoints and the arbitrary but commonplace beatings and detentions.

Thomas is justifiably proud of this work. He explains that "Fifty-thousand people [will] see the show over the next year. The programs for the show will probably sell something like 10,000 to 15,000 copies, part of the proceeds going to [the nonprofit organization] Zaytoun. They have articles by Stop The Wall, Combatants For Peace, Zaytoun and War On Want on boycotts and divestment. We've published the Palestinian [boycott, divestment and sanctions] call on the back of the program [and in the book] and there's maps showing the reduction of Palestinian land since 1917."

He adds that "This stuff is quite exciting for people to take away, but it's also intellectual ammunition so you can come out fighting at the end of it. It's also going to go to Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals, places where it's not just the 'usual suspects,' and that's exciting. For example, I was in Cardiff the other night and the best moment of the night was finishing the show, packing up to go, and the bouncer just came up and said to me 'that was fucking great, I've never seen anything like that. That's marvelous!' Well, my job is done, you know what I mean! Also, the book will reach maybe 100,000 people. And who knows what will happen with the film, which we hope to get into cinemas. I'm really pleased with this work."

When asked if he learned anything new from the experience, Thomas replies "Somebody said to me on the first day that what they were most proud of was the fact that 'my people are still here.' I think by the time I got to the end I kind of understood a little bit about that. It's actually stunning that people have withstood the onslaught that's going on. That is quite amazing."

Extreme Rambling is published by Ebury Press on 14 April. The live show is touring Britain until 25 September 2011.

Kevin Squires is a Palestine solidarity and political activist based in Ireland. A frequent contributor to various Irish leftist publications, he blogs about music, comedy, comics and politics at Citizen Partridge, where a full transcript of this interview will be posted.