Israeli Arab and member of Knesset, Azmi Bishara, wrote an article for the late July edition of the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly, wherein he called for ?the reconstruction of a Palestinian resistance movement?? Bishara bewailed the ?unprecedented state of decay? of the political culture of the local Arabs, ?the most significant manifestations of which are the absence of a national liberation movement?? The Arab MK declares that ?such national struggle and resistance is a realistic option, given that its prerequisites exist in Palestinian society, with its store of courage, dedication and expertise and with its proven daily willingness to fight and sacrifice.?
He called those who carry out terrorism ?those who, with the closure of all avenues of hope, have lost any sense of the meaning of life and seek instead a meaning in death.? In this context, the Arab MK referred to the fact that ?young people are going out to blow themselves up, instead of living and experiencing life, in order to make the Israelis ?pay the price?, regardless of the political consequences.?
Instead of such a politically immature approach, Bishara called for ?a strategy for resistance and for creating the institutions needed for that end.? The current crisis requires ?the reconstruction of the Palestinian resistance movement as a movement resolutely set against Israeli colonialist apartheid and the blatant separatism and racism it embodies.?
What this ?reconstruction? means to Bishara is to ?regulate the official Arab stance?.? Yet, he writes, that cannot be done ?if the Palestinians are not clear about what they want themselves, or are obsessed, as are many Arab regimes, with concocting pretexts for accommodating themselves to what Bush said in his recent speech.? Bishara particularly reviles those people nearest PLO leader Yasser Arafat ?who once professed their support for the national liberation struggle, have now abandoned it, along with the political culture that coalesced around it in Lebanon and in the PA after Oslo...? He sees those individuals as ?symptomatic of the demise of this movement before it has achieved its national objectives, a demise, moreover, that has taken the form of a moral degeneration reminiscent of the decadence that accompanied the collapse of empires??
He called those who carry out terrorism ?those who, with the closure of all avenues of hope, have lost any sense of the meaning of life and seek instead a meaning in death.? In this context, the Arab MK referred to the fact that ?young people are going out to blow themselves up, instead of living and experiencing life, in order to make the Israelis ?pay the price?, regardless of the political consequences.?
Instead of such a politically immature approach, Bishara called for ?a strategy for resistance and for creating the institutions needed for that end.? The current crisis requires ?the reconstruction of the Palestinian resistance movement as a movement resolutely set against Israeli colonialist apartheid and the blatant separatism and racism it embodies.?
What this ?reconstruction? means to Bishara is to ?regulate the official Arab stance?.? Yet, he writes, that cannot be done ?if the Palestinians are not clear about what they want themselves, or are obsessed, as are many Arab regimes, with concocting pretexts for accommodating themselves to what Bush said in his recent speech.? Bishara particularly reviles those people nearest PLO leader Yasser Arafat ?who once professed their support for the national liberation struggle, have now abandoned it, along with the political culture that coalesced around it in Lebanon and in the PA after Oslo...? He sees those individuals as ?symptomatic of the demise of this movement before it has achieved its national objectives, a demise, moreover, that has taken the form of a moral degeneration reminiscent of the decadence that accompanied the collapse of empires??