Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising—Israel's Third Front (review)

Volume 9, No.2 Winter 1991 81 Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising-Israel's Third Front, by Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989; translated by Ina Friedman, 1990. 352 pp. $22.95. Among the spate of recent books about the Intifada (according to one count, a dozen), Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari's has received the widest publicity and the most attention. It is a well written, blow-by-blow, journalistic account (no footnotes, bibliography, or documentation), covering the background , origins, organization, leaders, and activities of the uprising. It is, they maintain, Israel's third front: the first is against Arab regular armies, the second , against terrorism. The Intifada is seen as one of the crucial events in the contemporary Middle East and in the history of Israel since its establishment in 1948. Although the book discusses in general terms the impact on Israeli society , especially on the military, major emphasis is placed on events and their consequences in Gaza and the West Bank. The authors, among Israel's most well-known journalists, also show how the uprising affected Jordan, the PLO, the policies of the US, and, to a lesser extent, those of the Soviet Union. The chapter dealing with the influences on Israel's own Arab citizenry is also important. Despite the overconfidence of many Israelis in their ability to deal with the occupied territories and its problems, the uprising refocused attention on the question of Palestine after years of neglect. Nowhere "was the total disregard of the Palestinian issue more conspicuous than in the government of the National Unity coalition, which made a habit of avoiding sensitive issues" (p. 40). Before December 1987 "there seemed to be a collective mental block in Israel that the national leadership, most of the experts, and even a large portion of the press was unable to overcome" (pp. 40-41) regarding the occupied territories. Still the Intifada has not affected the core of life within Israel's Jewish community, which continues in its normal daily routines. Many, including some in the leadership establishment, have failed to perceive the significance of the uprising, according to the authors. Many, especially in the right-ofcenter political factions, believe that the uprising can be suppressed, or at least contained, if sufficient doses of force are used. Thus many in Likud and parties to its right have been openly critical of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commanders for their "kid glove" tactics in dealing with Arab dissidence in the territories, and of the conclusion reached by ex-Defense Minister Rabin and his generals, that the Intifada cannot be terminated by force, but only through a political solution. Both Jewish and Palestinian Arab societies have been polarized by the Intifada, in both cases polarized between proponents 82 SHOFAR of political compromise and militants who demand total victory for their national objectives. Events in the occupied territories since December 1987 have had a much more far-reaching, profound, and traumatic impact on Palestinian society than they have had within Israel. The Intifada has had the effect of a political and social revolution throughout the West Bank and Gaza. A new class of leadership has risen from the bottom of society to dispossess the notables and traditionals who were in control by virtue of family origins, wealth, or connections with the Ottoman, British, Jordanian, or Israeli rulers. The new youthful, previously unknown leadership reflects the disaffection that has been brewing beneath the surface of occupation since 1967. The uprising is not only against Israeli political-military domination, according to Schiff and Ya'ari. It began, they state, "as rebellion of the poor, an awesome outburst by the forsaken and forgotten at the bottom of the social heap" (p. 79). The first anti-government demonstrations of the Intifada began in Gaza and West Bank refugee camps where an "enraged proletariat" rose up against "a system that seemed designed to grind them down to the dust of humanity so that at an opportune moment Israel could blow them over the border in a single puff.... It was by dint of that rage that by the end of the first week of December 1987, many...