Stones against the Iron Fist, Terror within the Nation: Alternating Structures of Violence and Cultural Identity in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The framework of Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict has evolved over last half century through an instrumentalization of by parties concerned. Two of violence have emerged to define this instrumentality: one Israeli, other Palestinian. I call these structures of alternating rather than merely reciprocating because one not only feeds off other and actually practices on other that which is merely fancied and projected as other's intention but also because they have inverse periodicities: The Great Revolt (al-Thawra alKubra) of 1936-1939 introduced principle of armed struggle (al-kifah al-musalah) into practice and lore of a fractured and often factional antiBritish and anti-Zionist insurgency. It was effectively countered by British might coupled with an essentially defensive Jewish posture of consensus and (havgalah). By contrast current Palestinian Uprising (Intifada) has Arab side preaching restraint if not always nonviolence (al-la `unf), through a pluralistic consensus on immediate national ends such practice aims to achieve. Against this is an avowed Israeli policy of the iron fist (ha-yad hazaqah, barzel Yisrael) that for first time since independence has broken general Zionist consensus with regard not only to utility and morality of violent means but also to national goals.