Facebook Twitter
  • Home
  • Perspectives
  • Articles
  • Columns
  • Platform
  • Poetry
  • Literature
  • Write for us
Search
Facebook Twitter
62.2 F
Los Angeles
Saturday, May 24, 2025
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Media Monitors Network (MMN)
Advertise with MMN
  • Home
  • Perspectives
    • Jerusalem Israel Palestine Dome of The Rock Golden Dome

      The Abraham Accords undermined much-needed peace with Palestinians

      World Map

      Global disturbing disparities

      Globe Algeria Niger Mali Africa

      There is always a price to pay for befriending the Zionists

      Illegal Israeli Settlements

      Antisemitism claims mask a reign of political and cultural terror across…

      The Flower - Pakistan Monument at Night

      Israel in the vanguard of India’s mounting conflict with Pakistan

  • Articles
    • Man studying religious book

      Ishmael and Isaac: An Essay on the Divergent Moral Economies of…

      Mahmoud Abbas

      May Your Home Be Destroyed

      Netanyahu Lighting Hanukah Candles with His Wife and Sons

      Bibi’s Son or: Three Men in a Car

      The Map of Greater Israel

      The Man Who Jumped

      West Bank - Palestine

      Cry, Beloved Country

  • Columns
    • Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party

      Steps Left for Electing Progressives and Defeating Republicans in the Midterms

      Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      Nancy Pelosi Could Get Us All Killed

      Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      ‘Fortress Mentality’ Among U.S. Leaders Has Trapped Us in a Cycle…

      Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party

      Grassroots Organizing Should Dump Biden and Clear the Path for a…

      Corporate Media Are Focusing on Race -- and Dodging Class

      Biden Refuses to Mention the Worsening Dangers of Nuclear War. Media…

  • Platform
    • Hanukkah Lights

      Hanukkah is not hypocrisy

      The Washington Post

      “Preemptive war could risk millions of casualties. But….”

      When they shout: "We strongly condemn…"

      68

      Why Iran won’t attack Israel

      Is One Iraqi’s Self-Hatred Newsworthy?

  • Poetry
  • Literature
  • Write for us
Home Perspectives No Knock-Out
  • Perspectives

No Knock-Out

By
Uri Avnery
-
April 14, 2001
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
WhatsApp
Linkedin
ReddIt
Email
Print
Tumblr
Telegram
Mix
VK
Digg
LINE
Viber
Naver

     

    Two boxers enter the ring. One is a heavy-weight champion, his opponent is a feather-weight. Everyone expects a knock-out at the beginning of the first round.

    But, miraculously, the first round ends é and there is no knock-out. The second round ends é no knock-out. When the feather-weight is still standing up after the third and fourth round, it is clear that he is the true winner. Not by a knock-out, not even on points, but just because he is still standing and fighting against such a formidable opponent.

    This exemplifies the present confrontation between the IDF and the Palestinian people. The mighty Israeli army has not succeeded in breaking the backbone of the uprising. It has tried everything é gunship helicopters, tanks, cannons, liquidations, destruction of whole neighborhoods, closure, siege, demolition of homes, uprooting of plantations é and, in the seventh month, the Palestinians continue to stand on their feet and fight.

    In this fight, the Sharon-Peres government enjoys the overwhelming support of the United States, which provides it with arms and money and exercises its veto in the Security Council on Israel’s behalf. (Indeed, a European diplomat has said that Israel is in practice the fifth permanent member of the Security Council with the veto power.) Europe does pay lip-service to the Palestinians, but that’s all. The Arab regimes, which receive generous American handouts, are also content with merely donating kind words to the Palestinians. In Israel itself, all the media are totally enlisted in the service of the government, there is no real opposition in the Knesset, and é apart from the small radical peace-forces, which are boycotted by the media é there is no protest.

    If so, are the Palestinians helpless against the vast superiority of the Sharon-Peres government? Not really. They pin their hopes on several factors.

    First: the intifada itself. To the astonishment of the Israeli generals and commentators, the will of the Palestinian population has not broken, in spite of the terrible blows it is suffering. The economy has been demolished, life has become hell, but the entire Palestinian public supports the struggle.

    Somebody has described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “clash between an irresistible force and an immovable object”. The intifada has become a war of attrition. In such a war between occupier and occupied, the morale of the occupied is stronger, because he is fighting for his very existence. Napoleon said: “In war, moral considerations account for three quarters, the balance of actual forces only for the other quarter.”

    Israel, too, pays an immense price (nobody in Israel dares to calculate it), both in terms of money and the great damage caused to the quality of the IDF. Nobody knows when fatigue will overcome the will of the Israeli people to go on with this useless struggle. It will probably happen before the Palestinian side raises its hands in surrender.

    Second: the Arab masses. True, the Arab regimes are not ready to lift a finger for the Palestinians and they cannot afford to provoke the Americans, who keep them going with their money. But the situation of the intellectuals and the masses is quite different. There the sympathy for the Palestinians is great.

    This does not yet bother the kings and presidents. But if something were to happen that would infuriate the masses in a way that would endanger the stability of their governments, the situation would suddenly change completely. In all the Arab countries there are nationalist and Islamic opposition groups just waiting for such an opportunity. If Israel commits é even by accident é an atrocity like the 1996 Kafr Kana incident or an outrage in the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) area, an explosion would follow.

    A few days ago I had a conversation with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah. I got the impression that he pins great hopes on Arab support. He pointed out that a million people had taken part in one demonstration in Morocco, that for the first time a demonstration had been held in Saudi Arabia (and a women’s demonstration at that!), and that even in distant Oman angry demonstrations had taken place. It seems that everybody is waiting for Sharon to commit the act of brutality that will blow the situation sky-high.

    Third: there is a limit even to the total American support for Sharon-Peres. From the Palestinian point of view, the Bush administration may be the worst ever. But it has a definite red line: the oil. If an explosion were to occur in the Arab world and the kings and presidents were to send SOS messages to the White House, an American iron fist would descend on Sharon and Company.

    In the meantime, in the 29th week of the fight, there is no knock

    • TAGS
    • account
    • administration
    • after
    • against
    • American
    • americans
    • angry
    • apart
    • Arab
    • Arab World
    • arabia
    • arafat
    • atrocity
    • attrition
    • backbone
    • balance
    • because
    • become
    • before
    • beginning
    • behalf
    • between
    • bother
    • breaking
    • broken
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Pinterest
    WhatsApp
    Linkedin
    ReddIt
    Email
    Print
    Tumblr
    Telegram
    Mix
    VK
    Digg
    LINE
    Viber
    Naver
      Previous articleThe Palestinians’ Right of Return
      Next articleAn American Thumbs down for Palestinian Freedom
      Uri Avnery
      Uri Avnery

      Uri Avnery is a journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset, and leader of Gush Shalom. He is a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).

      RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

      Jerusalem Israel Palestine Dome of The Rock Golden Dome

      The Abraham Accords undermined much-needed peace with Palestinians

      World Map

      Global disturbing disparities

      Globe Algeria Niger Mali Africa

      There is always a price to pay for befriending the Zionists

      Google Search

      MMN @ Google Play Store MMN @ Amazon Appstore

      MMN @ TwitterMMN @ FacebookMMN Feed

      EDITOR PICKS

      Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party

      Steps Left for Electing Progressives and Defeating Republicans in the Midterms

      August 31, 2022
      Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      Nancy Pelosi Could Get Us All Killed

      August 1, 2022
      Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      ‘Fortress Mentality’ Among U.S. Leaders Has Trapped Us in a Cycle...

      July 25, 2022

      POPULAR POSTS

      167

      The Origin of Freemasonry: The Crusaders & Templars

      April 23, 2003
      Top 6 thủ môn Real nổi tiếng được nhiều người yêu thích

      Top 6 thủ môn Real nổi tiếng được nhiều người yêu...

      May 27, 2023

      Sharon to Peres: We Control America

      November 20, 2001

      POPULAR CATEGORY

      • Perspectives13563
      • News7491
      • World6083
      • Asia4331
      • Africa1633
      • Columns1370
      • Health1055
      • Australasia1010
      • Articles786
      ABOUT US
      Media Monitors Network (MMN) is a non-profit, non-partial and non-political platform for those serious Media Contributors and Observers who crave to know and like to help to prevail the whole truth about current affairs, any disputed issue or any controversial issue by their voluntary contributions with logic, reason and rationality.
      Contact us: [email protected]
      FOLLOW US
      Facebook Twitter
      • About MMN
      • Disclaimer
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Contact
      Copyright © 2000 - MMN International Inc. All rights reserved.
      Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
      All other brands, logos, and product names are registered
      trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
      ResponsiveVoice-NonCommercial licensed under 95x15
      MORE STORIES
      Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly – Daily update: 23 May 2025

      Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly – Daily update: 23 May 2025

      May 23, 2025
      UNHCR underscores plight of Rohingya refugees amid alarming reports

      UNHCR underscores plight of Rohingya refugees amid alarming reports

      May 23, 2025