* Much has already been written about the "Performance-based Road Map". The "performance" is clear: Israel retains the option to, at will, attack, destroy, murder, uproot, confine, humiliate and expel Palestinian men, women and children. Israel does not want to "occupy" the Palestinian people. But it wants to "occupy" the Palestinian land, without the people, or with the people locked up in enormous refugee camps, ghettos and bantustans. Performance is key. Diplomatic declarations are cheap. Pay attention to the performance.
* No political current that works for peace in Palestine can do so within the "Road Map", or alongside it. A "wait and see" attitude also will not do. The Road Map must be opposed, explicitly, on a principled basis, and an alternative political vision and plan proposed.
* The so-called "two-state solution" is one feature of the Road Map. All versions of the so-called "two-state solution" are unprincipled and ineffective from the point of view of peace and reconciliation. All versions of the so-called "two-state solution" permit the continued dominance of Israeli militarism. All are based on the defeat of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the defeat of the Palestine refugees and the defeat of the peace forces inside Israel. All peace forces, in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and outside Palestine, must clearly and explicitly denounce the so-called "two-state solution", and mobilize against it. Failure to do so plays directly into the hands of Bush-Sharon-Abu Mazen.
* The people of Palestine have the right to resist the terror of the occupation regime, by any means necessary. If the Palestinian resistance had helicopter gunships and battle tanks, a different military balance of forces would prevail. No one would support the use of "human bombs". No one can fault the Palestinians for failing to procure effective conventional weapons. But helicopters, tanks and "human bombs" are not the only options.
* The strategy based on "human bombs" directed at civilians is not a form of resistance. It is a form of terror against the people, Arabs and Jews. It demobilizes the people from political activity and resistance activity, and strengthens the hand of Sharon, who is also engaged in terror against the people, Arabs and Jews. The effective terrorism of the occupation regime undercuts any resistance movements and opposition movements within the Israeli population. The ineffective terrorism (ineffective from the point of view of the struggle for Palestinian freedom) of the self-styled "martyrdom" organizations prevents the Palestinian people from fighting for their own liberation and their own homeland and their own democracy. Thus, the "martyrdom" leaders and the leaders of Zionist terrorism are united against the freedom of the people of Palestine.
* The way to defeat those who are waging terrorism against the people is to mobilize the people for their defence. Public committees, mutual assistance, rallies, boycotts, strikes, pickets and mass unarmed demonstrations all are defensive measures that resist the oppressors and isolate the terrorists politically. Public mass resistance must be completely separate from clandestine armed resistance. Clandestine resistance measures include various forms of guerrilla warfare and partisan warfare that target the occupation army, disrupt its operations and demoralize its soldiers and their families. But the clear political message of the resistance has to come from public political actions that mobilize the masses of the common people - workers, students, women, refugees, farmers. This is the lesson of the intifada that began in December 1987. This is the lesson of all liberation struggles in all countries.
* From the point of view of the defence of the people of Palestine, Arabs and Jews, a new movement must arise that mobilizes the population, and that gives the people experience and confidence in their ability to achieve a better future.
*Henry Lowi is a Jewish peace activist living in Toronto, Canada.