Non violence

Submitted by Jon, a Brit from Euroland (France), May 3, 2011 at 11:39

Obviously it will be interesting to see how Israel might deal with an outbreak of non-violence. This will be such a novelty. I think perhaps that non-violence will be more of a problem for the Palestinian Authority and Hamas (now that they are "one and the same") than for Israel.

Non violence as protest is based on the idea that the protester feels he is living in a state with laws. Palestinians as individuals have never had much doubt that Israel is a place where the law is sort of important. They would be probably somewhat surprised if the PA or Hamas accepted the rule of law, and the supremacy of law over the local elites.

Of course if Mr. Pipes is talking about non-violent protest in the form of a "rent a mob" bussed in to attack "peacefully" the frontier wall, while being egged on by the Palestinian leadership which remains in complete corrupt control of their future, well then the issue is probably quite simple for the Israelis, in that they have methods, including "new stuff" like stink bombs and sound projectors which are quite effective, and certainly more so than the odd water cannon (which also is a waste of a precious resource.)

If he is suggesting that freedom might spread, and that the Palestinians might become responsible people, as individuals living in a democratic state, under the rule of law... well then I suspect that they will start by asking who stole their money, and might be initially more interested in their own future, and that of their children, than with being used as fodder for their leadership to extract the symbols of "resistance" from a totally transformed situation.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".