A New Palestinian Uprising

I had a realization the other day; sort of like an epiphany. Many times I have been asked, "Well what can the Palestinians <b>do</b>?" And the answer came to me.

Suicide bombers are going to kill themselves anyway. That's a given. So let's remember that - there are people willing to die for their cause, which is supposedly Palestinian Freedom (TM).

Killing Israeli individuals (soldiers, civilians, whatever) is not going to make a difference. They cannot possibly kill them all, nor can they kill enough to drive out the Israelis. This is also a known fact. Do not consider the negativity of suicide bombing in the sense that it kills humans - just look at the tactical aspect of it. That is, there is none. It simply won't be effective.

Now, think of the negativity of it - it hardens Israeli resolve <b>and</b> it gives Israel an excuse to crack down on Palestinians. The Palestinians are dumping gas on Sharon's fire, if you will.

What they need to do is effectively demonstrate.

I take you to the Vietnamese Buddhist demonstrations of the 60's.

For those that are unaware, here's what happened to Thich Quang Duc, the most famous of the protestors.

He stepped out of his car, sat down in the street. He assumed the Lotus position and began meditating. One of his fellow monks doused him with gasoline and then stood back. Duc lit a match and was instantly covered in flames. He sat there and burned. If you have RATM's first album, you've seen the picture. Most other people have as well. It won the Pulitzer prize that year.

All of a sudden, the entire world was awakened to the plight of the Buddhists in Vietnam.

It's my contention that a similar tactic would work wonders for the Palestinians.

You take these people that are willing to die - suicide bombers - and train them to self immolate. Maybe they do it in groups of two. Maybe they take some cyanide beforehand so they don't have to suffer the pain of burning.

They walk into a crowded Jerusalem open market, sit down, become doused in gasoline - either by an accomplice or themselves - and then make a scene.

Why would this work?

Well, first of all, it eliminates the negative associations of their typical "resistance". Now they're not killing innocent people, only themselves.

It's just as effective, tactically, as suicide bombing, because neither one is getting rid of enough Israelis.

World opinion would be <b>strongly</b> in their favor. Everyone would be asking "What can be so bad that they would light themselves on fire?"

And everyone would know about it because it would be a huge spectacle.

At the rate of one or two a week, it's my belief that these protests would be frequent enough to keep conversation on the topic and would be effective enough to actually bring about some change. Who doesn't have sympathy for a people that are being treated <b>so</b> awful that they self immolate?

What do you think? Would this work?

Now... my theory as to why it will <b>never</b> happen.

Because the Palestinians that are really willing to die for the freedom are indoctrinated with hatred against Jews at an early age. They don't want freedom; they want to kill Jews. Self immolation doesn't hurt anyone else, so there's no point in it.

Respond to the first part before you respond to the last. I don't want Count Zero, tw, Xugumad and friends saying that it's not true that Palestinian extremists are bloodthirsty. They are. Get over it. Let's find a meaningful form of protest that might actually work.