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www.israelimperialnews.org
6/25/2002 (23:02) |
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CAN THE ISRAELI ARMY BE DEFEATED? AND IF SO, HOW?
CAN THE ISRAELI ARMY BE DEFEATED? AND IF SO, HOW?
The aggressive Israeli army is called (I don't know why) the Israeli Defence Force. It is, actually, a very strong attack force. This is the strongest Army in the Middle East, and it also possesses chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, in short, weapons of mass destruction. That fact is not disputed by anyone. The only question is if this army can be defeated?
If we are talking about power, we all know that a military power can be defeated by a greater military power. In this sense the Arab power, even the combined Arab power, is not enough to defeat the Israelis and if we are talking about the Palestinians we must acknowledge that they don't have any power at all.
In the last thirty-two years, we, a small group of Israelis, have been trying to alert the world liberal public opinion to the fact that Israel intends to get rid of the Palestinians and take over and settle in their place. We must admit that in this task we have failed. The international public opinion didn't force their governments to curtail Israeli appetite for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. The inaction of great powers like the USA, Britain, France and Germany, only encouraged Israel to continue the policy of creating illegal Jewish settlements on confiscated Arab land.
We have now reached a situation where Israel has started not only to put settlers on Palestinian land but have also started to get rid, physically, of the Palestinians themselves. They do it in different cruel ways. Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, they have treated the Palestinians living in the occupied territories in the most degraded way. In the end, after many years of suffering, the Palestinians started to object. Their objection, known as the Intifada, began by throwing stones at soldiers, which the Israeli army answered by shooting and killing. I'll not go into the history of the two Intifadas because this is already in the public domain. I'll concentrate instead on the ethnic cleansing methods that Israel is employing. First they shoot to kill using the slightest provocation. When they shoot to kill, their main target is usually the leaders or those who are capable of leading - but anyone else will do, even a child. If they don't manage to kill, and only wound, they prevent the medics and the doctors from reaching the wounded, so that they die. When they don't manage to kill or wound, they arrest. The detained people are then tortured in order to extract 'information'. I don't know what kind of information they extract, but what I do know is that after they extract the information, these people are released, and then other Palestinians execute them because they are regarded as traitors. This suits the Israelis well. Palestinians killed by other Palestinians is even better.
The ethnic cleansing by these methods is sure and safe, but it is too slow. There are still too many Palestinians left. The Israeli Army hastens the process by demolishing houses. This system of demolishing houses is very clever. It doesn't enrage Europeans as do the killings, but is no less effective. If people don't have a place to live in, they go. In the beginning they go to live with their relatives or neighbours. If the house of their relatives or neighbours is also demolished, they are even more crowded or live in the open. In the end, those who have some money, like the rich and the middle class, emigrate and join their relatives abroad. The poor who are left without leaders will have to submit to slavery for very little money because they have to eat and feed their families. Recently, in the raid on Ramalla, Nablus and Jenin, Israel soldiers started something new: they broke computers, destroyed software and any information they could find that can keep a community going, (which is no less cruel and vile than the other things they do). They also made it look as if the soldiers did it just for fun. But I know the Israelis - I'm one of them - and I know that they wouldn't have done it if they were not instructed to do so.
Nobody, so it seems, is going to stop Israel getting rid of the Palestinians because the greatest power, the USA, is actually encouraging it, while the European powers do not lift a finger. Why should they sacrifice their soldiers and their economic interests because of the Palestinians?
The question then remains and is crying out even louder: is there a way for a lesser power to defeat a greater power, in this case Israel? You might be surprised but the answer to this question is yes, there is! Yes, there is a way, but this way is a revolutionary way that departs from the old, classic way of thinking and doing war. This way of thinking does already exist in some lesser branches of combat but has not penetrated yet to the real theatre of war.
Think, for example, of the combat art of Judo. In this art, the principle is to use the power of your opponent to defeat him. Can this approach be applied to war? Is it possible to use the power of the Israeli Army itself to defeat it? Yes, it has even been done in the past - there are already some historic examples.
There are two historic examples from ancient times. One is that of Alexander the Great in his famous victory when he defeated the Persian army in Arbela, and the other is the defeat of the Roman army at Canae, by Hannibal. However, I don't want to go back to antiquity. I will only go back 200 years.
200 years ago there was, in Europe, another invincible army, and that was the French Army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte. This was an army that won all the battles it fought but, in the end, collapsed under the weight of its own victories. The Israeli army can be defeated in the same way, but one that needs a different approach to war and war strategy.
Let us have a look at the reasons for the collapse of the French army. As we all know, the French, under the command of Napoleon won all the battles they fought. This, naturally, gave them an appetite for more victories. After subduing all his opponents in central Europe, Napoleon looked for more enemies and found one in the east. He attacked Russia. The Russian Tsar and his generals knew the power of the French army and tried to avoid battle. Occasionally they fought small skirmishes, which they usually lost but which resulted in very little damage to their own troops. The French army was confident and continued to advance. The Russian Army retreated until the French conquered Moscow. Even then, the Russian Army refused to fight and the Russian Tsar refused to surrender.
Napoleon sat in Moscow waiting for a surrender that never came. The French army ate all the available food and drank all the available wine, and harassed the local population out of sheer boredom. After they burned half the city down and saw the cold Russian winter coming, they returned the same way they came. On their retreat they were harassed by guerrilla attacks by the Russians, which this time were much more successful, since the French soldiers were already tired from their many victories. The French retreated until they reached Paris, but this time they entered Paris with their tail dangling between their legs. This was the end of the invincible French army, and in their next battle in Leipzig, they were militarily defeated.
This is a good model by which the invincible Israeli army could also be defeated. But, as we've already said, it needs a revolutionary way of military thinking and acting.
Instead of offering peace for land as the Saudis are now proposing (which is actually an American plan), the Arab states have to declare war on Israel but, at the same time, they should not repeat the mistakes they made in 1967 and 1972. This time, after declaring war on Israel, they should avoid a military confrontation. When the Israeli Army attack them, they should retreat. They should avoid battles as much as possible and prefer instead small, guerrilla-style skirmishes. They should continue to avoid battles, go on retreating and let the Israeli army advance. They should let the Israelis advance and take over Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. Once Israel has conquered these capitals they will be entrapped. In order to keep these cities, the Israeli Army will be stretched beyond its limits. I don't know how much army one needs to keep Cairo with its 12 or 15 million inhabitants. The Israeli army will be so thin that it will be vulnerable to guerrilla and terror attacks from all sides. A myriad of small guerrilla attacks will cause it so much damage that in a short time the army will retreat and go back to Tel Aviv. This time, however, not as a proud and victorious army, but as a defeated one.
The only difficulty that I can see with this plan is that the Arab states will be unable or unwilling to implement it. Some might point to a possible danger. But then, what could be a danger? The only danger that I can see is this: that the Israelis, who will also know about this plan to defeat them, (because it will be in the public domain, published on this website as well as elsewhere), might try to avert their fate by not responding to the challenge, and not attacking the Arabs when they declare war on Israel. Worse still, they may raise the white flag themselves and surrender to the Arabs the moment war is declared. This is a real danger and I'll have to think hard how to react to such a challenge. But, knowing the Facist/Nazi character of Ariel Sharon and his complete reliance on the theories of Machiavelli and Klausewitz (1), there is no doubt that he will dismiss this article as a joke, thereby sealing the fate of the Israeli Army.
If you have a better idea about how to defeat the Israeli army, send it to us and we will publish it!
1.
It should be noted that in one of the last chapters in his book On War, there is a hint of the idea expressed in this article. When asked what should a weak nation do when confronted by a much stronger enemy, his advice is to attack although he doesn't elaborate on the subject.
The idea in this article is based on the book: The White Flag Principle - How to Lose a War and Why, by Shimon Tzabar, published by Allan Lane, (Penguin Hardcover Edition), 1972.
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