Don't overburden the Lions' Den

Written by: Hani Al-Masry
Since the announcement of the establishment of the "Lions' Den" group, and within just a few weeks, it has been loaded more than it can bear and beyond its capacity. As the people put their aborted dreams and goals on their shoulders, and they are required to overcome the deep impasse in which the Palestinian cause, the political system and the national movement are going through, after the Palestinian situation reached a catastrophic state due to the approach of the adopted strategies to a dead end, especially the Oslo strategy and negotiations, and to engage in a political process of Without having any possibility of success, and continuing with it for about thirty years, despite the fact that its futility and harm became clear.

Providing the ingredients for continuity and victory instead of embracing to death

The factions, leaders, and elite have increased their love and praise for the "lion's den", and sought to invest it quickly, each in his favor, and burden it more than it can bear. To cover up its absence and shortcomings, to the extent that it was considered a new uprising, and some went so far as to consider it a new leadership, instead of searching for the reason why the existing frameworks and factions did not fulfill their supposed role of leading their people, and how they could engage with all their weight and lead and not be satisfied with support and participation if there is still a possibility and desire. it has to; Because its failure to play this role is what created a vacuum that the occupation is trying to fill, just as the "Black's Den" and other battalions and movements deployed in various places where the Palestinian people are present are trying to fill it.

It is too early to expect a comprehensive uprising, and everything that is going on is stages on its path

It is too early to talk about a comprehensive uprising and the transformation of what is happening into a sweeping torrent and a new leadership, although what has been happening since the end of the second intifada until now are uprisings and waves of uprising, as soon as one recedes, another rises, from popular resistance moving from one region to another, to operations that take the form of Run over, knives and Molotov cocktails at times, and sometimes take the form of military operations in conjunction with a popular character, as characterized by the current wave.

All forms of resistance that often take the form of local waves and donations, which are concentrated in Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem, or under the title of prisoners or Gaza, or in sites adjacent to the wall and settlements, or in Jenin and Nablus, as is happening recently, we can call it an intifada as a whole; In other words, the third intifada took, and perhaps, even more likely, will take the form of waves, until the outbreak of a comprehensive uprising that needs a great goal to achieve, a leadership to lead, and a broad national front to base on.

Also, the failure of the Intifada to break out is a natural result of the new situation that emerged after the assassination of Yasser Arafat, the occurrence of division and the separation of the West Bank from Gaza, and the persistence by the occupation in tearing apart the West Bank, within the annexation of Jerusalem, and the division of other regions into (A), (B) and (C). ), and the confiscation of land, its Judaization and settlement, to the extent that the number of settlers reached about one million settlers, who became more like a state within a state, as well as the fragmentation of the Palestinians inside and outside the separation wall, and in light of the absence of the permanent presence of the occupation forces within the Palestinian cities, in addition to the authority standing in the face of any wide forms Or armed resistance, in addition to Hamas avoiding leading the confrontation, or adopting armed resistance operations in the West Bank to avoid punishment by the authority that does not tolerate Hamas members on the one hand, and to avoid launching an Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on the other hand, and above all that neglecting our people In the lands of 48 and the diaspora, and the weakening of the Liberation Organization, the unifying national institution, to the point of paralysis.

As we remember, the occupation forces launched their aggression against the Strip in 2014, following the kidnapping and killing of three settlers in Hebron by a cell of the Al-Qassam Brigades. What created the square unit equation of the occupation? As for the jihad movement, despite throwing all its weight into the confrontation, it does not possess the structure nor the sufficient capacity, intellectually, politically, organizationally, publicly, and institutionally, to lead it.

There is no war without Hamas, and no intifada without Fatah.

It is said that there will be no war without Hamas, no uprising without Fatah, and no new leadership before its components are available (vision, goals, plan, decision, will, popular, regional and international depth, and the appropriate circumstance); In other words, there will be no comprehensive uprising before its components are dug up and matured, the most prominent of which is a new leadership. It will crystallize in the midst of battles, stage after stage, and it needs time unless Fatah and Hamas, or one of them, emerge from the trap of the two powers.

What is required of "Fatah" and "Hamas"

The comprehensive uprising will not happen unless Fatah breaks free from the unfair and heavy Oslo obligations and commitments, works to change power, abandons illusions about the possibility of resuming negotiations to achieve the two-state solution, and gets out of the state of waiting that made the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas coexist with the fait accompli created by the occupation. It excludes any possibility of ending the occupation and embodying the independence of the declared State of Palestine.

The uprising will not break out before Hamas leaves the power trap, makes it a priority, completes its transformation into a national movement with a religious intellectual dimension, completely severing ties with what it was as a branch of a global project led by the Muslim Brotherhood, and crystallizing alone or contributing to the crystallization of a new comprehensive vision that emerges. Among them are new strategies and a broad national front that transcends the state of betting, or waiting for the Palestinian leadership to respond to its demands, or the rise of the Islamic genie, or the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood again after its great fall, or Iran and its allies waging a total war from all arenas to remove Israel, or the demise of Israel in fulfillment of prophecies Resulting from the numerical miracle of the Qur’an or the curse of generations.

The new movements and the phenomenon of the "Lions' Den" and the Phalangists are in their infancy

It is difficult for the "Lions' Den" and the various battalions and movements inside and outside Palestine to bring about or lead the process of change required to repair the great ruin quickly; Because it did not crystallize a new vision, leadership, and program, and it is still soft, and its members are either young and inexperienced, or reproduce previous practices (what is meant here are new intellectual and popular movements), and they are inconsistent; Some of them focus on elections as a gateway to advancement, others on rights and freedoms, others on resistance, and some fourth on the need to crystallize the alternative and completely cut ties with the status quo and the leadership that has abandoned its role, and some fifth prefer quotas or possible change on the basis of partnership between The old that is not quite gone and the new that is not yet quite born.

The leading idea is still absent, and leadership in its deep and broad sense is also absent, in light of the fact that decades of occupation and more than 15 years of division; It created an entire structure, economic, political, social, cultural and security, against the resistance, and not just an individual or individuals who are deviant if they die or fall or overthrow it ends.

Bringing hope is the path to change

Change needs to inspire hope among the Palestinians, with the possibility of victory, and without it, the people cannot be involved in the battle, and this cannot be done without inspiring ideas, practices, and different, creative and new modes of work, as we sometimes witness in what is happening now, and correctly answering the question: Why Why did the great heroics and the precious sacrifices made by the Palestinian people achieve achievements that are commensurate with them?

A summary of the above: Change needs great power, and great power is not available without a new leadership and a new thought that is open to what is happening in the world and capable of interacting with it, a new policy and an appropriate Arab, regional and international circumstance. A leadership that saves the frameworks of the Liberation Organization from loss and a state of clinical death, by rebuilding its institutions on the basis of a comprehensive vision, and setting concrete goals for each achievable stage, on the way to realizing big dreams and goals. It is not enough to adopt the approach of resistance and consider it an answer to everything. Resistance is a tool, not a goal, and it is a blind tool if it is not motivated by sincere thought and conscious leadership. The resistance currently embodied, despite its importance and necessity, does not indicate the existence of a liberation strategy, but rather it is a required state of defense, and evidence of the people's steadfastness and determination to keep their cause alive.

Why did the Fatah movement lead the Palestinian revolution?

To further clarify what I mean, what made the Fatah movement a leader of the Palestinian people is not its adoption of the armed struggle, as others adopted it before it, but rather because it was born in the stage of Arab revival after the Egyptian revolution, the division of the world into two camps, socialist and capitalist, and the rise of global liberation movements, the working class, and progressive forces in the West. A correct fundamental idea was put forward, which is the centrality of the Palestinian role in the battle of liberation and return, and that it will lead the role of the spearhead to join others, especially the Arabs, while the nationalists believed that the priority was for Arab unity, and the Islamists believed that the priority was for the Islamic caliphate state or the rise of the Islamic genie, and the leftists linked The fate of their country in the Communist International, and when the defeat of 1967 occurred, it was the second and largest breakthrough for the Fatah movement and the Palestinian revolution, especially after it fought the Battle of Dignity, due to the availability of the appropriate Arab, regional and international conditions.

The Lions' Den is a challenge and a stage on the road to new leadership

The Lions' Den and its sister brigades and intellectual, political and popular movements are evidence of the people's vitality and insistence on steadfastness and resistance, but it is closer to a state of challenge than a new leadership that lays seeds and signs on the way to crystallizing the new leadership. A state that demands martyrdom, and its members fight until martyrdom, away from the saying of guerrilla warfare and popular liberation war known as “hit and run” in order to strike again, and not present itself as an alternative; Evidence that after the assassination of Tamer Al-Kilani, one of its leaders, she said in her obituary statement that the issue of the strike is decided by the concerned authorities, after she had previously called for a successful strike. This indicates that it is still searching for its identity, and it is governed more by reactions than action, and it is more local than it is national in general, despite its expansion to several regions, and its obtaining of the popular incubator. However, it lacks an intellectual, leadership, organizational, programmatic and potential incubator, and needs a suitable circumstance.

This phenomenon needs to crystallize and complete the formation, or to be part of a unified national leadership that assumes the leadership of the resistance within one tool, and it can and should participate in the factions if they show willingness, or without those who do not agree to participate. Here, a position cannot be taken to exclude the participation of the factions. Because it will participate in all cases, either in the manner of "oh shame, oh ruin", or it seeks to invest what is happening to serve the approved strategies, or it participates within the new patterns of thinking and action imposed by the needs of the resistance.

Continuous attempts to eliminate and contain the "Lions' Den".

The Lions' Den is subject to continuous attempts to eliminate it from the occupation forces, to contain it by the authority, and to invest by the factions, while what is required is to support it and provide the elements for its continuity, develop its performance, fill its shortcomings, and view it as a stage on the road to the renaissance of the Palestinian people. It needs to provide the ingredients to become a new leadership or part of a new leadership that seeks to organize a comprehensive uprising capable of victory.

Possible change is on the path of necessary change

Comprehensive change is an urgent need to save the cause, the national identity, the land, and the people, but it will not happen quickly, not at once, because of all the reasons referred to and not referred to in this article. Rather, it is a gradual process; Because of the reality of the occupation and its role in preventing the victory of any revolution for change and division that drains the energies of the Palestinian people. Lethargy, surrender and despair.