To me, this is the disagreement between us: you want to split hairs on
> the ideological question of violence, for reasons that seem murky to
> me.
No, I actually care about it less than most other ideological questions. (I honestly can't see a trace of ideology, other than a rough grasp of recent history, in my last e-mail.) Nor do I really have a principled position against Americans and other citizens of imperialist states offering advice to participants in Palestinian and other resistance movements. (Today a leader in the Palestinian popular struggle, with whom I agree on most things, told me that I should express my opinions more freely when meeting with other factions. Who knows? I might follow his advice someday, although I'll certainly be less shrill about it than the likes of Gitlin, and hopefully much better-informed.)
Rather, I find the moralistic sermonizing of nonviolence proselytizers annoyingly vapid and devoid of substance. You're far from the worst on this count, but since you've conveniently offered me an imperfect example, I hope you'll excuse me for using it:
> While I think the focus of attention should be the question: what
> would attract more supportive international attention to Palestinians
> who are engaging in nonviolent resistance?
>
Ahbal. To the extent that the Palestinian struggle should concern itself with the outside world, it should be to attract concrete support, not "attention" (which sounds as likely to be bad as good). And support has a way of flowing toward the winning party. It is, in any event, the task of solidarity activists to build international support for the goals of the Palestinian resistance, not its tactics, and that of Palestinians themselves to develop a winning strategy on the ground, as well as to defend themselves and each other against daily aggression. Those who expect the latter to execute the duties of the former misunderstand the nature of both international solidarity and local struggle. If the global anti-apartheid movement had waited for Umkhonto we Sizwe to lay down its weapons before mobilizing behind the ANC, we might still be boycotting Sun City.
In closing, I note that some of the most violent movements of our time, like Zionism, have had no problems attracting legions of supporters, while entirely peaceful ones, like the Chagossian return movement - in many ways remarkably similar to that of the Palestinians - languish in isolation. If you're postulating some correlation between strategies and outcomes, I think the onus is on you to establish it. Most successful anticolonial movements that spring to my mind (the Irish, Algerians, Vietnamese, southern Africans, etc.) would naturally lead one to conclusions quite different than yours.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."