Strategies for Struggle Strategies for Peace

Abstract

The year 1982 has been a new landmark in the history of the conflict in the Middle East. It has brought to the fore the Israeli commitment to the annexation of the territories occupied in 1967; Israel's total disregard for any process towards reconciliation and its total lack of restraint in the application of violence in the West Bank, in Gaza, or in Lebanon. At the same time, it has become quite clear that even an all-out direct attack does not weaken Palestinian national-political demands. Nor does it make the satisfaction of these demands, in some form, less of a prerequisite for a relaxation in the area. The year 1982 has also seen the resurgence of an impressive Israeli peace movement, unified into two camps: Peace Now and the Committee Against the War in Lebanon.** This new phase in the development of the peace movement has shown new levels of commitment and a new consciousness on a wide popular scale. This peace movement has experienced an informal relationship with the Palestinian struggle in many different ways and on different levels. New concerns, new ideas and new perspectives are surfacing. It is high time