Ariel Sharon’s war against the Palestinians can never be won. It cannot be won because Israel is fighting an enemy that has nothing to lose — except life. The Palestinians are not the first people in history who, when robbed of hope, decided that life was no longer worth preserving. Many of them may not have heard of Auguste Rodin, but they believe, as he did, “To live is nothing, but to sacrifice life for an ideal is the only thing that gives man his true quality.”
Though it cannot win the war, Israel has been winning most of the battles. How could it fail to, given its vastly superior armament, its US-fed satellite intelligence and its total control of the airspace? The ultimate symbol of Zionist dominance has been the clanking monster of the Merkava 3 main battle tank. Impervious to bullets and petrol bombs, this heavily armored fighting vehicle might be disabled by a hand-launched anti-tank missile, but could normally be totally destroyed by a powerful missile, such as that launched by US-built A10 Tank busting helicopters. But the Palestinians don’t have any A10s. Despite this, the Israelis now own one less Merkava 3.
Suddenly the Israeli juggernaut, crashing into Palestinian territory to assassinate or bulldoze homes or gun down stone-throwing children, has slowed down. And it no longer looks quite so invincible. Of course, the machines of death will keep coming, but Israeli commanders have lost some of their insolent nonchalance. For many serving soldiers, this latest incident in the rising spiral of death and destruction will harden the conviction that this is a war that cannot be won.
It is all very well for retired military men like Sharon and his fellow political hawks to order yet more retaliation, but this is not the same sort of war in which they once fought. This is a grinding, increasingly ruthless struggle, in which every Palestinian shot seems to produce two or three volunteers to replace him. Sharon has miscalculated if he believed that by depriving these people of all hope, he could break their spirit, destroy their leadership and force them to accept Zionist plans for an aggressive Eretz Israel. Indeed, against all the odds, Yasser Arafat’s political support appears to be strengthening, rather than weakening.
An increasing number of Israelis, some for reasons of honor and revulsion and some from fear of death, are refusing to serve in the occupied territories. The destruction of a Merkava 3 is likely to make the fearful even more determined to disobey orders and the honorable, more persuaded that this is an oppressive struggle which Israel should not be waging.
Arafat’s acceptance of moral responsibility for the intercepted arms shipment has pleased Washington. This is rather odd. Because implicit in his statement is the belief that, in the face of attacks from hugely better armed and equipped Israeli forces, his people have the right to defend themselves, and for that they need the best weapons that they can find. Nevertheless, the mightiest weapon in the Palestinian armory is their grim determination. What they have destroyed with that weapon is more than a tank. They have also destroyed a myth. They have proved that while tanks, missiles and aircraft can conquer patches of land, they cannot conquer human spirit.
