The Palestinian intifada is not four years old as history books tell. In fact, it dates back to the Arab summit held in Baghdad which sidelined the Palestinian cause triggering street protests by Palestinians.
That was an uprising to protest an official Arab stand. Though limited in scope, it nevertheless went down in history as a Palestinian protest movement. It was only four years ago that the uprising began under the name intifada. The uprising was spontaneous at first, but gradually developed into an organized movement. The beginning was Palestinian children using stones and slingshots to protest the occupation. The movement then developed into one using rockets and car bombs driven by adults. In the end it grew into a full-fledged armed resistance.
In its early stages the original Intifada succeeded in putting Israel on the defensive, both at home and internationally. The Tel Aviv government appeared as an ugly regime confronting children with tanks.
Palestinian organizations then hijacked the intifada transforming it into one of those ordinary wars witnessed in various parts of the world, from Sri Lanka to Northern Ireland and Northern Nigeria — a confrontation between two adversaries. The intifada lost its innocence and glamour after the initial picture changed from one of Israeli soldiers killing innocent and defenseless children to armed Palestinians killing Israeli children.
During the long years of the intifada, the Palestinians succeeded in establishing two basic facts: First, they proved they possess an ever-flowing supply of unflinching and fearless youth who are ready to die and, second, they proved they have a leadership that failed to gain politically from this vast human resource. That was a serious political failure on the part of different Palestinian leaders who continued to disagree among themselves over policies, strategies and positions. The result has been continued spilling of Palestinian blood.
In the past, it was said that the Palestinians had failed to present any proof that they were serious in their resistance since most of their guerrilla operations happened abroad. The intifada changed all that by focusing inward thus proving that the confrontation is purely Palestinian in nature as are decisions associated with it.
After four years of a bloody uprising, the Palestinians now are in no need of convincing the world and particularly their Israeli adversaries that they do exist on their land and that they are ready to die to the last man to defend every inch of this land. What they need to do today is translate blood into tangible results. They need a political leadership capable of transforming this massive resistance effort into a genuine liberation project, as did Hezbollah in South Lebanon. What makes the Lebanese resistance unique is that it is united and in control of both the political and military situation.
The Palestinian resistance, on the other hand, is divided into factions and slogans with no common ground. It was the unity of the Lebanese resistance, and not suicide operations, that forced the Israelis to pull back. The Lebanese resistance did not say no when Israel announced its intension to withdraw from South Lebanon. Hezbollah liberated every inch of land while committing itself to a border security arrangement. It did not give up the resistance on the ground that some land is still under Israeli occupation. It has a commitment with Syria and did escalate the situation to the extent of driving Israel into reoccupying the lands under its control.
What counts in the end is the results and not political games and maneuvers. Here lies the problem in the case of the Palestinian intifada, which has lost a lot after the arrest of its leader and brain, Marwan Al-Barghouthi. His absence saw Palestinian organizations competing among themselves to produce bad copies of the original intifada, appearing at times as an Iraqi armed resistance and at others as an Al-Qaeda organization. If the ongoing chaos and quarrel among Palestinian groups continue, the intifada may degenerate into fratricidal wars.
The intifada is now drifting aimlessly without a leadership to harness its energy and to guide it to a safe port.
