I was listening to an eminent Swiss former special forces expert, Colonel (retired) Jacques Baud, talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And the man flat out confirmed what I knew in my mind for the longest time. He said that a terrorist group can also be called resistance freedom fighters in the same sentence.
In short, when one says Hamas, for example, are freedom fighters, they could well be referring to the desired outcome of their struggle. Now, the moment one calls Hamas terrorists, they are not wrong either. Because they may be referring to the methods they employ to reach their objectives.
I felt compelled to make this clarification, because mass media too often offers a black & white narrative that does Truth a great disservice. They say that certain groups, the CIA lists about 68 of these on their website, comprise of terrorists. And while this may be true, it is also misleadingly only half-true. To be clear, I am not excusing terrorism. I am putting in historical context.
The 13 Colonies used what the British Crown called terrorist tactics like targeting officers, or murdering Loyalist civilians. In fact, most asymmetric warfare involves terrorism. And yet, we only hear the victors’ side of the story, never that of the losing side.
My point is the following: if Palestinians have a right to resist Israel in all ways then Israel too has the same rights.
In the end, the outcome of this fight will dictate whether history will remember Palestinian struggle as terrorists or freedom fighters.
The same principle applied to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or the IRA or the Red Army Faction.
History is a fable agreed upon by victors.
There is no escaping that. And a ceasefire now means a renewed series of atrocities tomorrow.
I say let them do it now to the bitter end.
This way our kids can live in a world where this conflict was solved, one way or the other, during their parents’ time.
Because if we don’t, our boys and girls will live in a world of terror attacks and mayhem during the 100th anniversary of Israel’s birth or 100th commemoration of Nakhba.
Post scriptum
Not sure if this is the right post to comment or explain how the October 7, 2023 attack happened and how the IDF was caught with its pants down on a religious holiday, but I feel I must offer my two cents. Have any of those, who reject the official narrative of Israel dropping the proverbial ball, ever tried to guard a border wall to an area full of people who hate your guts and want to see you dead for any amount of time?
Because if the answer is no, then my job is so much easier. All border walls are destined to fail. The human mind has no equal when it comes to devising ways to defeat any defences. They say that if you give a monkey a typewriter and long enough time to go nuts, it will eventually hand you the complete works of Shakespeare.
Since that is true, on a sufficiently long enough time frame, why is it hard to believe that:
A. The IDF did not drop the ball. They may have suspected something beforehand but did not have enough solid proof to mobilize the military on a religious holiday.
B. Hamas prepared for 15 long years, building up stocks of rockets and missiles, ordnance, training and preparing for the Day of Revenge.
C. IDF was fixated on its past victories so much it forgot that the Wall separated them from people who are willing to die as martyrs for the chance of killing Jews.
D. If you ally opportunity with preparation and planning, you get 1,300 dead Israeli civilians and military and 200+ hostages. And Hamas silently prepared for 15 years, while Israeli soldiers stared at a freaking wall, doing nothing concrete, except for using aerial drones, signals intelligence (SIGINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), the Iron Dome and air strikes.
E. When an army allows the enemy take the initiative of when and how to attack, that army is sure to take a nasty blow or even lose the battle. I am sure Sun Tzu said this somewhere in his book. I will check to see if I am right after the fact.
F. In fact, history is replete of great, efficient, and outstanding armies sitting or better said hiding behind a Wall, who thought they had outsmarted their enemy only to find out that walls can be breached, overturned, scaled, and penetrated by small or large motivated and underpowered armies. The Romans come to mind as a robust example of why walls do not work. By becoming passive, Rome decided to cede the initiative to the Barbarians, which took it and flew with it so good that they buried the Western Empire within 3 centuries.
G. Are we that surprised that Hamas was 20 times more agile than some dumb Barbarians? If Israel doesn’t get its proverbial sh.t together, the country will find itself under literal siege. And when that happens, of Lord protect us!
Götterdämmerung 