"The best-equipped army in the Middle East, supported by one of the most powerful air forces in the world, backed by a navy, and outnumbering its opponents by a conservative five to one, was totally unable to knock off a band of ragged-arse kids equipped with the sort of weapons that might just about control a football crowd in Uruguay...."
So wrote Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy in their book "God Cried", about Ariel Sharon's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and siege of Beirut, by which he intended to finally destroy the Palestinian armed resistance and its leadership.
Twenty six years later and the Israelis have still not been able to realise their grand Zionist dream of driving the indigenous population from all the lands between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. Gaza is undergoing a slow genocide, East Jerusalem is being ethnically cleansed, the West Bank has been split up into a series of impoverished Bantustans where Jewish colonists control the hilltops and water resources. The resistance has been disarmed, jailed or gone into hiding. Surrounding Arab states appear indifferent to the fate of the Palestinians.
All of this would indicate a disastrous state of affairs - if it wasn't for the will of the people. Humiliated, starved, beaten, jailed, tortured, dispossesed, they continue to resist. They deserve our admiration. They need our help.
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