Palestinian street disappointed Saddam offered no resistance

Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 16, 2003 | KHALED ABU TOAMEH

[yonif]

In the first official Palestinian response to the capture of Saddam Hussein, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei said on Monday that the arrest was an internal Iraqi affair.

"The arrest of Saddam Hussein is an internal Iraqi affair," Qurei told reporters in Ramallah. "We welcome and salute any choice of the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have their own authority and we hope that they will have an independent and sovereign state."

Qurei's statement came as PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and other senior Palestinian officials remained tight-lipped about the capture of Saddam.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continued to express their anger and disbelief at the capture of the Iraqi dictator, with many condemning Saddam for his failure to resist the arrest, saying it would have been better for him to die as a martyr.

"Saddam should have learned from the Palestinian fighters, who prefer to fight to the end when the Israelis come to arrest them," said Anwar Shtayeh, a Hamas supporter from Hebron. "Many Palestinians preferred to die under the rubble of their homes than surrender to the Israeli army. Saddam has proved that he's the biggest coward on earth."

In Khan Yunis, some 200 Palestinians demonstrated in support of Saddam, shooting into the air from M-16 rifles and burning American and Israeli flags. The demonstrators carried Iraqi flags and portraits of Saddam Hussein.

"The Americans may have captured you but you captured our hearts," an organizer said through loudspeakers. "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam," chanted many of the demonstrators.

The protest was organized by the pro-Ba'ath Arab Liberation Front and Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

Echoing widespread criticism on the Palestinian street, some commentators said they would have preferred to see Saddam fight against the US soldiers who captured him rather than surrender in an humiliating way.

Writing in the Palestinian Authority's daily al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, columnist Adli Sadek said that Saddam should have died resisting capture rather than submit without a shot fired, despite a pistol by his side.

"Maybe they fired a smoke bomb that neutralized him. Maybe he was asleep and was betrayed by traitors," Sadek mused. "We wish he had resisted as did his sons," he added. Uday and Qusay Hussein died in a shootout with US troops in July.

The arrest of Saddam has sparked a wave of "conspiracy theories" among many Palestinians, who said they have no explanation as to why he chose to surrender without resistance. The most popular theory in the cafes of Ramallah and Gaza City is that Saddam was drugged before his capture, thus denying him the possibility of being able to use his pistol.

Another columnist, Ahmed Dahbour, strongly condemned the "collaborators" who helped the US capture Saddam and those who facilitated the occupation of Iraq. "These traitors are mercenaries, not revolutionaries," he wrote in al-Hayat al-Jadeeda.

Bassem Abu Sumayah, director of the PA's Voice of Palestine radio station, said he cursed Saddam Hussein when he saw him on TV being examined by a US medic. "There is no denying that I was one of those who were incensed when I saw Saddam succumb to the medical check-up as if he was being treated by his personal doctor," he added.

[CindyDawg]

Me too.

[Lawgvr1955]

I have no hope for the Palestinians described in this article ever living in peace. They regularly demonstrate that they cannot differentiate between arabs who are benevolent towards their people and those that are despots. Saddam kills fellow arabs or muslims and is still lauded as a "hero".

[El Gato]

"Saddam should have learned from the Palestinian fighters, who prefer to fight to the end when the Israelis come to arrest them," said Anwar Shtayeh, a Hamas supporter from Hebron. "Many Palestinians preferred to die under the rubble of their homes than surrender to the Israeli army. Saddam has proved that he's the biggest coward on earth.",

Arafat will be no different when the time comes. Hopefully it will come sooner rather than later.

[umgud]

Arafat is living proof that terrorism pays. He should have been killed years ago.

[yonif]

Nah, we are too busy supporting his regime's goal for a state *beside* Israel.

[river rat]

"shooting into the air from M-16 rifles and burning American and Israeli flags.

We armed these bastard lunatics with M16s?????
I, as a taxpaying American citizen in Kalifornicate, protected by the 2nd Amendment, am not allowed to own such a weapon!!!!!

That MUST have taken place during CLINTON's Administration...

The world is upside down....

Semper Fi

[yonif]

We send them $400M every year. And some of the guns they steal off IDF soldiers they kill.

[Kay Soze]

I gues Saddam did not have access to a depressed teen willing to blow himelf up for his parent!

To a Palie resistance is using your depressed teenager as a suicide bomb for cash and prizes.

[McGavin999]

Hey, did the Palestinians know that Saddam was eating HAM?

[Dog Anchor]

Since the Palistinians are so humiliated with Saddam for
his behavior I think they should return all that money
he gave them just to really show him...

[dufekin]

Arafat should have been dead not years ago, but decades ago.

Yasir Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, largely for advancing terrorism against innocent civilians to a new level.

And I pity the young Israeli soldiers who have to defend themselves against these terrorists--without actually harming the terrorists by killing, hanging, torturing, shooting, beating, bayonetting, electrocuting, murdering, or entombing them.

[longtermmemmory]

some relative of saddam (sister I believe) is saying they gassed him. That is how they "tricked" him.

This is right in there with "its all hollywood special effects. Bahgdad did not fall."

[BenLurkin]

Reading this it baffles me that anyone in America could have any sympathy for the PA. They are consumed with an intractable depth of hostility to Western civilization in general and to the United States in particular.

[TaxPayer2000]

wheres the Palestinian street sweeper when you need him?

[montag813]

"The Americans may have captured you but you captured our hearts," an organizer said through loudspeakers. "We will sacrifice our blood and souls for Saddam,"

This from those whom Bush called "the poor, suffering Palestinian people", and to whom Condi Rice has said the Israelis must make "major concessions". The world has gone mad. That this Administration is determined to give these animals their own terror state proves that they have learned nothing from 9/11.

[monkeyshine]

Dead men tell no tales. Better he was captured alive.

[CindyDawg]

Better he was captured alive.

Yeah I know. It's going to be a long year though. (media/Dim spin)

[MarkL]

And some of the guns they steal off IDF soldiers they kill.

While you're right, I believe that due to the Oslo accord, Israel was required to supply the PA's security forces with arms, which included M-16s. Crazy, huh? Israel complying with a "peace accord" by supplying their sworn enemy, which has never honored any "peace accord" with weapons.

Mark