-Essay- CAIRO — The war has been far longer than we supporters of the Palestinian cause had predicted. We had built our expectations on the exceptional image of the moment, on this momentary glimpse, when the resistance crossed the border and flew its gliders towards the promised land. But on the ground, the confrontation was violent and bloody on both sides to form another exceptional image, which is the practice of violence. Perhaps the members of the resistance who crossed (into southern Israel) did not believe that they were inside the land they were denied. They were stunned by the surpri…