Why Arafat doesn't walk out of the Mukata'a? by Shraga Elam 7:12pm Mon Oct 6 '03 Why Yasser Arafat agrees to be locked in his mouse hole in Ramallah, while Palestinians have been called to defy actively the occupation forces. print article It is obvious that the Israeli military junta seeks all possible and impossible ways to escalate the situation in the Middle East. Why there aren't massive and effective movements in Israel against this obvious dangerous and criminal course? Can it be that many Israeli Jews are less clever than what the Judeophobes and Judeophiles believe them to be? There are of course no simple answers to these and similar questions, but most probably the explanation of the Nazi leader Herman Goering, as reproduced by the US psychologist Gustave M. Gilbert, touches a central issue. In his cell in Nuermberg the Nazi criminal posed the question in this way: "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece." His own answer was: "… the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country*." It is obviously not so complicate to manipulate the anxieties of people, in order to motivate them to support a belligerent policy, especially if they are really attacked, but why doesn't it function so successfully the other way around? The same question posed to the Israeli Jewish society might be put to the Palestinian. Why an effective non-violent perspective has not been developed, especially after it has been proven again and again that the armed struggle leads unavoidably to a collective suicide, because millions of Palestinians are held as hostages by the ruthless Israeli regime? The so called Palestinian national leadership seems to be bothered mainly, as most of "national" leaderships, in following its own interests, while "simple" people are being called to sacrifice their life to help these politicians fulfilling their selfish agenda. Together with some Palestinian friends, we have been wondering for a long time, why e.g. Yasser Arafat agrees to be locked in his mouse hole in Ramallah, while Palestinians have been called to defy actively the occupation forces. Why Yasser Arafat has not come out of the Mukata'a and walks with many many people ( including Israeli and international human shields) to Jerusalem, Bethlehem etc.? Shraga Elam Zurich/Switzerland ----- * Gilbert, G.M.Nuremberg Diary, Farrar, Strass and Company, New York, 1947 , pp. 278-279 add your comments

to shraga by hhi! 9:13pm Mon Oct 6 '03 print comment Fear is the most motivating factor as to why the people have not chose pacifism as another path. add your comments

Ok, then what about the answer? by AMR 10:28pm Mon Oct 6 '03 print comment Shraga, You asked a very interesting question but you have stop short in providing the unswer... We know the unswer but I leave the court to you to unswer you own... add your comments

Ok, then what about the answer? by AMR 10:34pm Mon Oct 6 '03 print comment Shraga, You asked a very interesting question but you have stop short in providing the unswer... We know the unswer but I leave the court to you to unswer you own... add your comments