Arafat losing control of extremists - - Jordan's king

Reuters | 6/21/02

[kattracks]

BRUSSELS, June 21 (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah said in 
an interview published on Friday that Palestinian leader Yasser 
Arafat had substantially lost control of militant groups and 
warned that even worse violence lay ahead in the Middle East. 
    "What I can say is that over the years I always thought 
Arafat was capable of controlling Palestinian public sentiment 
and extremism," the king was quoted as saying in an interview 
with the Belgian weekly Le Vif/L'Express. 
    "I think that is no longer the case today." 
    Abdullah, one of Washington's main Arab allies, renewed his 
call on the United States to engage more vigorously in efforts 
to stop the escalation of violence between the Palestinians and 
Israelis. 
    "If there was peace between the Israelis and Palestinians we 
would run less risk of another September 11," he said, referring 
to the suicide hijacking attacks on New York and Washington. 
    "This is what we are telling the Americans: you are asking 
us to fight against terrorism, but by failing to resolve this 
Israeli-Palestinian problem you tie our hands behind our backs." 
    Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab neighbours of Israel with 
peace agreements with the Jewish state. 
    U.S. President George W. Bush told Israeli Prime Minister 
Ariel Sharon on Thursday he was determined to pursue peace in 
the Middle East after two Palestinian suicide attacks led to a 
delay in his speech outlining a path to Palestinian statehood. 
    The United States said a written statement from Arafat 
demanding an end to attacks by his people on Israeli citizens 
was not enough to end the violence. 

WORST IS NOT OVER But King Abdullah said he believed Arafat's ability to control Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and even his Fatah faction had been severely curtailed as extremists multiplied their attacks. "The problem is that when there is such anger it is difficult to control anything," he said. He said the United States had failed to understand the gravity of the crisis, believing that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's recent swing through the Middle East would be enough to calm the situation. "I told the U.S. president in no uncertain terms that the anger has far from cooled," he said. "I stressed that if the confrontations between the Israeli army and the Palestinians dragged on the situation in the Middle East would deteriorate." "I explained to all countries with which we are friends that the worst was not behind us." The Arab leader said the situation could improve if the two sides could be brought to the negotiating table this summer, but warned of another cycle of violence if a Palestinian state is not created in the next three or four years. Abdullah said his contacts with the Bush administration had led him to believe that the United States was still in favour of a peace conference at a ministerial level. He said Europe, the United Nations and Russia must work alongside Washington to try to arrange talks between the two sides.

21 JUN 2002 10:44:42 Arafat losing control of extremists--Jordan's king

© 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[kattracks]

Exactly what has Arafat done to try to control the "militants".

It's time for Arafat to GO!

[LarryM]

Let's have a Palestinian state in Jordan.

[chachacha]

He said the United States had failed to understand the gravity of the crisis

We understand perfectly even if George doesn't. Non of these Arab "Kings my A--" have control of these terrorists. Everyone of those "Kings my A--" are only in positions of power because they struck a deal with the Devil "aka The terrorists". The rule of law in your corrupt Countries starts at the bottom and works up to you Mr. "King my A--" Here's the deal!

I'll let you play Kings and Queens you stay out of our terror business. No if, ands, or buts.

[Catspaw]

I'm trying to figure this out: King Abdullah says that Arafat can't control the militants, but yet we should give the Palestinians their own state so there'll be peace.

Either I'm missing quite a bit in this equation or King Abdullah is nuts.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"Let's have a Palestinian state in Jordan."

Wouldn't that be more like a homecoming.....?

[Miss Marple]

I think the idea here is to hint to Arafat that it is time for him to go.

[mewzilla]

I suspect that Tubby's colleagues will soon do the job for us...

[Catspaw]

True--but would Arafat's successor be able to control Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc., any better than Arafat? Oh, the persons jockeying for position to succeed him may be saying that they can control them, but I doubt if they can. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. aren't going to go away, and they certainly haven't changed their goals of wiping out Israel.

[Miss Marple]

No one can control Hamas. But if Arafat went, a new leader could once and for all publicly disavow Hamas and the others and help root them out.

The idea that the ONLY thing keeping the Palestinians from having their own state is the terrorists is a good idea to keep planting in their heads. Sort of a carrot (possibility of a state) and stick (loss of territory to Israel with every attack) approach.

I don't know if it's going to work, but it seems to be how this is shaping up. At least it's something different. The newspaper ad asking that the bombings stop, placed by prominent Palestinian citizens, was an interesting development. Those people were taking a very grave risk in afixing their names to that ad, and the paper ran a risk in printing it. To my mind it says a sizable group of people on the West Bank are fed up with Arafat.

[Jeremiah Jr]

Jordan's King Abdullah (R) and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak review Bedouin guards of honour at Amman military airport June 19, 2002. Mubarak arrived in Amman on Wednesday for coordination talks with King Abdullah ahead of a widely-awaited speech by U.S. President George W. Bush set a unveil a new Middle East policy. REUTERS/Ali Jarekji

Gaza to Egypt and Judea and Samaria to Jordan? I see a bad moon rising...

[Dallas]

paging.....

[DonQ]

Essentially the Saudi king is telling us that Arafat did have control over the terrorists when they were blowing up marketplaces, restaurants, and schoolbuses last year and years before ... even while he was pretending to try to discourage such acts. But now he can't control them. As if it makes a practical difference!

[Sinbad]

The hope that a cure to all of the problems in the Middle
East lies in a resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is tempting. I wish more of our own people in the State Department would heed the words of ex Prime Minister Netanyahu: "The Arabs do not hate the West because of
Israel; they hate Israel because of the West."

[Catspaw]

I don't know if it's going to work, but it seems to be how this is shaping up. At least it's something different. The newspaper ad asking that the bombings stop, placed by prominent Palestinian citizens, was an interesting development. Those people were taking a very grave risk in afixing their names to that ad, and the paper ran a risk in printing it. To my mind it says a sizable group of people on the West Bank are fed up with Arafat.

No, I don't think so. Some of these so-called moderates have gone on the tube and justified the mass murderers. Hannan Ashwari, one of the signers of the ad, said of the first female homicide bomber in essence that the PA were equal opportunity employers. My guess is that these folks know what side of the bread is buttered and they want to stay in power, keep that flow of money coming in, and maintain their positions. They wouldn't have put this ad in the paper, after all, without Arafat's express permission. It makes them sound good. With Arafat's recent pronouncements that he'll accept Clinton's peace proposals and that he can work with Sharon means that Yasser is simply shifting his stance to fit the current circumstances, and his now making all the right noises.

BTW, Marwan Barghouti is still being touted as a moderate leader of the Palestinians, despite him being jailed by the Israelis for his role in any number terrorist attacks.

[Miss Marple]

Well, you have a point. I keep forgetting that the whole group is nothing but a bunch of liars. Forgive me...for a moment I was thinking there might be some rational thought on the West Bank.

You are probably closer to the truth.

[Catspaw]

Or it could be that I'm too much of a cynic.

[swarthyguy]

From yesterday's WSJ.

""The Israeli group IMRA reports that 55 "prominent Palestinians" have signed a statement urging an end to suicide attacks. Well, sort of. The statement apparently doesn't express any moral objection to massacring Jews, arguing instead that it's a self-defeating tactic because it tends to "increase the number of countries supporting the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people." The statement also limits its objection to attacks within the "green line"--that is, Israel's boundaries before the 1967 Six Day War. As IMRA notes, that leaves out yesterday's and Tuesday's massacres, which occurred in parts of Jerusalem that were under Jordanian occupation before 1967.

Ha'aretz reports Yasser Arafat was to have issued a similar "condemnation" but canceled it, "citing technical reasons."

[Miss Marple]

Thanks!

As I said to Catspaw, what WAS I thinking? I should have known normal behavioral rules didn't apply.

[Catspaw]

The WSJ was much more articulate than me and gets to the point faster. Rats.

[swarthyguy]

YOur reaction demonstrates that for most people the desire to live in peace is an overriding impulse. This desire is used very cleverly by the palestinians and their fellow travellers - witness this ad; it had to parsed to show its hypoicrisy. BUt a cursory reading or knowledge of it would be enough to convince most people that there is a 'peace' movement in the Palestinian polity, such as it is.

Tricks, lies, prevarications, dissembling and assorted propaganda techniques in the service of terror. And they're getting the state they want.

I see nothing wrong with this picture. /heavy sarc -