© COPYRIGHT: Michael L. S. -- 2004, 2005, 2006
NO content of these pages may be used without my prior consent.
RECENT POSTS:
- BLAIR LIED -- THOUSANDS DIED
- Arafat Feuds With UN
- Disturbing Incident in France
- Tel Aviv Bombing
- Whose War Is It Anyway!?
- ICJ Security Barrier Judgment
- Asylum Horror Story
- NEVER AGAIN!!!
- PA Denies Voting Rights to Refugees
- European anti-Semitism, Euro 2004
Arafat Crisis
Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2004
When one writes what many would call essentially a theory concerning a controversial issue, it doesn't happen often that a few days later the subjects of that endeavor very enthusiastically prove one absolutely correct. And so we behold the latest developments in Aza. It is difficult not to gloat and say "we've been telling you so all along" as we witness the utter disintegration of chairman Arafat's "authority". Of course, the physical reality of it all is regrettable. But it does prove what we've been saying all along: Arafat is interested in only holding on to his power; negotiating and reaching a solution with Israel would herald the beginning of the end of his power, and since he wields ALL the power in the PA, we haven't in him a partner to negotiate with. EVEN most of the world is applying pressure on him to reform and restructure his notoriously corrupt Palestinian authority because it is obvious that peace cannot be reached when one of the parties is an introverted and despotic clique which would much rather keep its people in perpetual misery than even CONTEMPLATE relinquishing some of the nigh absolute power it enjoys. Reforms are vital and they include the departure of Arafat himself. Old habits die hard and someone who has been running a basically feudal system was never able to transform it into a democratic one nor will he be able to be. In a surprisingly critical article The Independent wrote, inter alia: "Mousa Arafat [(Arafat's cousin--whom Arafat appointed as replacement for "general" Jabali who was hounded out of office by protesters against corruption) is] among the most corrupt of Palestinian officials. Other sources in Gaza said the intelligence chief was widely suspected of creaming profits from cigarettes and drugs smuggled, along with weapons, through tunnels controlled by his service."
These are the direct results of the putative strategy initiated by Yasir Arafat's a decade ago. That is when he began permitting all and sundry groups to be incorporated all over Palestinian authority territories. One would not be off the mark to suspect this was done so as NOT to achieve peace and to undermine what he had undertaken to do at Oslo in 1993. After all, if there are disparate groups running amok in the PA and attacking Israel, Arafat can easily say they have nothing to do with him and be absolved of blame while continuing his aggression against Tzion. And he can even more easily milk the international community for cash supposedly to help him organize his security forces to be able to rein in these groups. This he never did preferring instead to pocket the money. The gangs stayed and waxed stronger and better equipped, the PA was turned into a series of ghettoes controlled by these disparate groupations, they kept attacking Israel and so Arafat was still able to conduct war against us while being perceived as a peacemaker by the outside world which thought Arafat simply didn't have the means or power to exert control and establish his authority over all of PA. In reality he very much had control and played the gangs as he pleased. His virulent anti-Israel rhetoric (which invariably differed from what he served to the media when speaking in English) ensured the mood among his minions remained anti-Semitic. And so he could sit back and feign impotent innocence while the various groupations conducted terrorism against Israel. His own PLO sponsors three major gangs: the Fatach, Tanzim and al-Aqsa "martyrs" plus a myriad of offshoots. That's all in addition to Chamas, Chizbolah, DFLP, PFLP and tens of others.
Problem for him now is that some of these gangs have turned on their maker. Don't mistake this for a popular uprising demanding democracy, transparency, accountability and integrity from those in power. Those stirring up trouble in Aza are bandits who are assaying to create as best a position for their own gang as they can before Israel withdraws. Of course, none of those enumerated above would be any better or worse than Arafat: they, too, would need to retain their power once they got it. And we all know what that means: more corruption, more intimidation, more abuses of Palestinians' human rights.
Nonetheless, the Palestinian people now have the unique opportunity to reach a kind of catharsis and start anew. They can topple Arafat and his oligarchic clique and elect someone like Mahmoud Abas or Ahmed Qureia whose egos cannot possibly match Arafat's and who are thus much more likely to work for the Palestinian people rather than for themselves and their cousins. Will it happen? Probably not. Decades of anti-Semitic indoctrination will ensure that power is seized by someone like Chamas rather than a moderate and modernizing force. This chaos though might in the meantime well assume the characteristics of the situation in Iraq with warlords vying for power with beheadings and car bombs. Still, whatever happens, the status quo is as good as gone. Even if Arafat stays, he will no longer be able to continue as hitherto and will have to start listening to his own people as well as the outside world which, barukh haShem, has at last gotten exasperated with him.
Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2004
ב''ה
When one writes what many would call essentially a theory concerning a controversial issue, it doesn't happen often that a few days later the subjects of that endeavor very enthusiastically prove one absolutely correct. And so we behold the latest developments in Aza. It is difficult not to gloat and say "we've been telling you so all along" as we witness the utter disintegration of chairman Arafat's "authority". Of course, the physical reality of it all is regrettable. But it does prove what we've been saying all along: Arafat is interested in only holding on to his power; negotiating and reaching a solution with Israel would herald the beginning of the end of his power, and since he wields ALL the power in the PA, we haven't in him a partner to negotiate with. EVEN most of the world is applying pressure on him to reform and restructure his notoriously corrupt Palestinian authority because it is obvious that peace cannot be reached when one of the parties is an introverted and despotic clique which would much rather keep its people in perpetual misery than even CONTEMPLATE relinquishing some of the nigh absolute power it enjoys. Reforms are vital and they include the departure of Arafat himself. Old habits die hard and someone who has been running a basically feudal system was never able to transform it into a democratic one nor will he be able to be. In a surprisingly critical article The Independent wrote, inter alia: "Mousa Arafat [(Arafat's cousin--whom Arafat appointed as replacement for "general" Jabali who was hounded out of office by protesters against corruption) is] among the most corrupt of Palestinian officials. Other sources in Gaza said the intelligence chief was widely suspected of creaming profits from cigarettes and drugs smuggled, along with weapons, through tunnels controlled by his service."
These are the direct results of the putative strategy initiated by Yasir Arafat's a decade ago. That is when he began permitting all and sundry groups to be incorporated all over Palestinian authority territories. One would not be off the mark to suspect this was done so as NOT to achieve peace and to undermine what he had undertaken to do at Oslo in 1993. After all, if there are disparate groups running amok in the PA and attacking Israel, Arafat can easily say they have nothing to do with him and be absolved of blame while continuing his aggression against Tzion. And he can even more easily milk the international community for cash supposedly to help him organize his security forces to be able to rein in these groups. This he never did preferring instead to pocket the money. The gangs stayed and waxed stronger and better equipped, the PA was turned into a series of ghettoes controlled by these disparate groupations, they kept attacking Israel and so Arafat was still able to conduct war against us while being perceived as a peacemaker by the outside world which thought Arafat simply didn't have the means or power to exert control and establish his authority over all of PA. In reality he very much had control and played the gangs as he pleased. His virulent anti-Israel rhetoric (which invariably differed from what he served to the media when speaking in English) ensured the mood among his minions remained anti-Semitic. And so he could sit back and feign impotent innocence while the various groupations conducted terrorism against Israel. His own PLO sponsors three major gangs: the Fatach, Tanzim and al-Aqsa "martyrs" plus a myriad of offshoots. That's all in addition to Chamas, Chizbolah, DFLP, PFLP and tens of others.
Problem for him now is that some of these gangs have turned on their maker. Don't mistake this for a popular uprising demanding democracy, transparency, accountability and integrity from those in power. Those stirring up trouble in Aza are bandits who are assaying to create as best a position for their own gang as they can before Israel withdraws. Of course, none of those enumerated above would be any better or worse than Arafat: they, too, would need to retain their power once they got it. And we all know what that means: more corruption, more intimidation, more abuses of Palestinians' human rights.
Nonetheless, the Palestinian people now have the unique opportunity to reach a kind of catharsis and start anew. They can topple Arafat and his oligarchic clique and elect someone like Mahmoud Abas or Ahmed Qureia whose egos cannot possibly match Arafat's and who are thus much more likely to work for the Palestinian people rather than for themselves and their cousins. Will it happen? Probably not. Decades of anti-Semitic indoctrination will ensure that power is seized by someone like Chamas rather than a moderate and modernizing force. This chaos though might in the meantime well assume the characteristics of the situation in Iraq with warlords vying for power with beheadings and car bombs. Still, whatever happens, the status quo is as good as gone. Even if Arafat stays, he will no longer be able to continue as hitherto and will have to start listening to his own people as well as the outside world which, barukh haShem, has at last gotten exasperated with him.
ARCHIVED ENTRIES:
LINKS: