Word: gaza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...paradoxically saved the PLO. While Israeli military actions had driven the leadership from Lebanon to Tunisia and roundly defeated its terrorism and guerrilla campaigns launched abroad, the Palestinians under occupation were a fount of renewal for the nationalist movement. The four-year intifada waged in the West Bank and Gaza ultimately forced Israel to a political reckoning with Arafat, and the Oslo accords. And despite its near-total collapse, the Oslo peace process has profoundly altered the terms of battle over the West Bank and Gaza...
...supportive of the anti-occupation cause has created perfect conditions for guerrilla warfare - something the PLO never had in exile. In the 70s and 80s, there were isolated terrorist attacks and the occasional kamikaze guerrilla sent across the border on a hang-glider; while in the West Bank and Gaza militant youths were confined to stones and gasoline bombs and the occasional handgun. Oslo has brought the different dimensions into physical proximity, meaning the stone-throwing youth can be turned into a sniper or recruited as a suicide bomber. And that's created a security nightmare for Israel...
...course, the West Bank and Gaza are not Lebanon. The Palestinian territories are entirely surrounded by Israeli forces, meaning that unlike Hezbollah, the Palestinians have no easy access to heavy weaponry. And the Israelis had no emotional attachments to Lebanon, whereas the West Bank is home to a politically powerful settler constituency and includes East Jerusalem - it's harder to imagine Israel leaving (although perhaps marginally easier in Gaza, which is nobody's idea of a promised land). On the other hand, there have already been signs that Syria is attempting to send rockets and other heavy weapons...
...extent to which the West Bank and Gaza are objectively similar or dissimilar from Lebanon is less important than the extent to which Palestinian militants believe they are. Because it's the belief that time and the laws of attrition are on their side that prompts them to try to replicate the Hezbollah strategy. And the danger for Israel is that in the absence of a political solution, the Hezbollah option becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy...
...developments in the West Bank and Gaza go far beyond the intifada. It's no longer marches and stones; it's guns and tanks and missiles. It's becoming a purely military confrontation...