He starts off his essay as if he might actually be saying something daring:
Why do we fight the largest military arsenal in the Middle East with worn or hand-made guns? In a century, we continue to offer victims after victims, and we are happy to present ourselves as champions and lovers of death. We speak with pride about victories here and there despite the enormity of the catastrophe and without shame either for ourselves or for the world around us.So Sabah decides to look at the history of Palestinian "resistance" and see what lessons can be learned.
He starts with their first murderous rampage in 1920 and goes on from there, looking at the impotence of the murder sprees and terror attacks in 1921, 1929, 1936 and the more recent intifadas. Yet he despairs - why haven't these moves worked? And now, horror of horrors, Arab states no longer want to fight wars with Israel.
What to do?
Sabah says that all 12 million Palestinians must get off their seats and walk, "barechested," and overrrun Israel. After all, Israel cannot possibly kill 12 million people, right?
As he writes it, "How many people can [an Israeli soldier] kill before he is trampled by the masses of men, women, children and the elderly, sick, disabled, and old?"
Tellingly, he refers to all 12 million alleged Palestinians as "12 million intercontinental missiles." This is exactly how the Arab leaders have traditionally looked at Palestinians - not as people but as cannon fodder, as pawns who can be used for propaganda purposes against Israel. Certainly not as human beings with human rights, at least not under Arab rule.
Of course, the idea that Palestinians must compromise and make peace with Israel so these millions would not have to be human weapons never occurs to Sabah - nor does it occur, as far as I can tell from over a decade of reading Arabic media, does it ever occur to a single Palestinian Arab published writer in Arabic.