Abstract
As the United States embarks on an ongoing relationship with Iraq and the resistance movements there, it would do well to learn from other experiences in dealing with opposition groups. The case of Israel in the Palestinian territories provides a powerful lesson in which seemingly sound military tactics led to an increase in radicalization, not pacification, of the resistance.
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Notes
The goal of this control, according to Halper, is not defeating but paralyzing the enemy. He likens this strategy to that of the Viet Cong, who used it successfully to defeat an army of superior numbers. Jeff Halper, “The 94 Percent Solution: A Matrix of Control,” Middle East Report, no. 216 (2000), 15.
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Quoted in Cheryl A. Rubenberg, The Palestinians: In Search of a Just Peace (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003), 118.
Lucy Mair and Robyn Long, “Backs to the Wall: Israel’s Stranglehold on the Palestinian Economy Is Consolidated by a Massive Wall,” Dollars & Sense, November/December 2003.
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Sara Roy, “Ending the Palestinian Economy,” Middle East Policy, vol. 9, no. 4 (2002), 124. Closure is provided for in the Economic Protocol of Oslo II, Article VII.1.
Eva Etzioni-Halevy, “Civil Military Relations and Democracy: The Case of the Military-Political Elites’ Connection in Israel,” Armed Forces & Society, vol. 22, no. 3(1996), 407;
also Yoram Peri, “The Israeli Military and Israel’s Palestinian Policy: From Oslo to the Al Aqsa Intifada” (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2002), 27.
Quoted in Uri Bar-Joseph, “Variations on a Theme: The Conceptualization of Deterrence in Israeli Strategic Thinking,” Security Studies, vol. 7, no. 3 (1998), 152. On retaliation in Israeli military practice, see Ranan D. Kuperman, “Rules of Military Retaliation and the Practice by the State of Israel,” International Interactions, vol. 27, no. 3 (2001).
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Israel Tal, National Security: The Israeli Experience, trans. Martin Kett (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000), 52.
Political violence can be defined as activities by individuals or collectives aimed at creating social or political change through public protest. Donatella Della Porta, Social Movements, Political Violence, and the State: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995 ), 3.
Glenn E. Robinson, “The Peace of the Powerful,” in Roane Carey, ed., The New Intifada: Resisting Israel ’s Apartheid (New York: Verso, 2001), 111.
Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 149.
Aldon Morris and Naomi Braine, “Social Movements and Oppositional Consciousness,” in Jane Mansbridge and Aldon Morris, eds., Oppositional Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), 72–73.
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and Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977).
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Khaled Abu Toameh, “Frustrated Fatah Threatens Kidnappings,” Jerusalem Post, August 27, 2004.
Graham Usher, “The End of the Road?” Middle East International, January 9, 2004, 15.
Graham Usher, “Rafah: The End of the Rainbow,” Middle East International, May 28, 2004, 5.
Historical and social scientific analysis reveals that frustration and feelings of injustice from indiscriminate repression merely increase the potential for developing a broad revolutionary coalition. See Goodwin, No Other Way Out; Mohammed M. Hafez, Why Muslims Rebel: Repression and Resistance in the Islamic World (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2003).
Recently, the IDF have become aware of the dangers of humiliation, and instituted seminars to attempt to train soldiers on proper checkpoint behavior. However, the inherent power discrepancy embodied in the border crossing, with Israeli soldiers in charge, will effectively prevent humiliation from being erased from the situation. Amira Hass, “Checkpoint Behavior,” Ha’aretz, September 2, 2004.
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Ghassan Andoni, “A Comparative Study of Intifada 1987 and Intifada 2000,” in Carey, ed., The New Intifada, also see Joost R. Hiltermann, Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women’s Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
See Graham Usher, “What Kind of Nation? The Rise of Hamas in the Occupied Territories,” in Joel Beinin and Joe Stork, eds., Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Census data shows that even now, at the height of Hamas’ popularity, its own adherents do not share the Islamist goals of the organization, but support it due to its nationalist actions. See Jerusalem Media & Communication Center, at www.jmcc.org, accessed May 26, 2005.
Salim Tamari, “The Revolt of the Petite Bourgeoisie: Urban Merchants and the Palestinian Uprising,” in Jamal R. Nassar and Roger Heacock, eds., Intifada: Palestine at the Crossroads (New York: Praeger, 1990), 159.
Glenn E. Robinson, Building a Palestinian State: The Incomplete Revolution (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), 175.
Mona N. Younis, Liberation and Democratization: The South African and Palestinian National Movements, ed. Bert Klandermans, vol. 11, Social Movements, Protest, and Contention (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
Hans-Joachim Rabe, “Palestinian Territories: From State Building to Crisis Management,” in Volker Perthes, ed., Arab Elites: Negotiating the Politics of Change (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2004), 274, 278.
Graham Usher, “Fatah’s Tanzim: Origins and Politics,” Middle East Report, no. 217 (2000).
Graham Usher, “The Politics of Internal Security: The Palestinian Authority’s New Security Services,” in George Giacaman and Dag Jørund Lønning, eds., After Oslo: New Realities, Old Problems (Chicago: Pluto Press, 1998).
Graham Usher, “Closures, Cantons and the Palestinian Covenant,” Middle East Report, no. 199 (1996), 33.
Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela, The Palestinian Hamas: Vision, Violence, and Coexistence (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), chapter. 3.
Khaled Abu Toameh, “New Fatah Groups Controlled by PLO Dissident in Lebanon,” Jerusalem Post, August 26, 2002.
Khaled Abu Toameh, “Fatah Heads Worried about Renegades,” Jerusalem Post, July 1, 2003.
Amira Hass, “Palestinian Parents’ Nightmare in Nablus,” Ha’aretz, August 1, 2004.
Khalid Amayreh, “The Killings Go On,” Middle East International, March 5, 2004, 13.
Khaled Abu Toameh, “Aksa Martyrs Brigades Threatens PA minister,” Jerusalem Post, February 9, 2003, 2.
Khaled Abu Toameh, “Losing Authority,” Jerusalem Post, March 5, 2004.
Graham Usher, “Facing Defeat,” Middle East International, September 24, 2004, 17.
Arnon Regular and Jack Khoury, “Dozens of Fatah Gunmen Open Fire on Abu Mazen,” Ha’aretz, November 15, 2004.
Amira Hass, “Demonstrations in Gaza For and Against Mousa Arafat—Sometimes Called Moshe,” Ha’aretz, July 20, 2004.
Molly Moore, “Refuge Is Prison for Hunted Palestinian,” Washington Post, August 23, 2004.
Matthew Gutman, “Al-Aksa’s Wild Card Continues to Trump Arafat,” Jerusalem Post, August 4, 2003.
Ellis Shuman, “Arafat’s Fatah militias responsible for most of the terror,” Israelinsider, March 19, 2004, at http://web.israelinsider.com/home.htm. In fact, Hamas was quiet by comparison during the end of 2003.
Graham Usher, “The End of the Road?” Middle East International, January 9, 2004, 15.
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© 2006 James A. Russell
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Baylouny, A.M. (2006). Oslo’s Success, a Militarized Resistance: Changing Opposition Tactics in the Palestinian Territories. In: Russell, J.A. (eds) Critical Issues Facing the Middle East. Initiatives in Strategic Studies: Issues and Policies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403983206_4
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