PLO dismisses call to replace Arafat

Washington Times ^ | 6/25/02 | From combined dispatches

[kattracks]

RAMALLAH, West Bank

[Optimist]

Palestinian leaders are elected directly by the Palestinian people. President Yasser Arafat was directly elected in a free and fair election,"

And when we, the Palestinian leaders, decide who the next "President" will be, only THEN, will we hold free and fair elections again so the ignorant Palestinian people can directly elect him.

[goldstategop]

The PLO can wait for statehood til hell freezes over. 'Nuff said.

[d4now]

President Yasser Arafat was directly elected in a free and fair election," Cabinet minister and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN.

This was in 1996 - right?

[monkeyshine]

"Palestinian leaders don't come from parachutes from Washington"

Where does Mr. Erekat think Arafat came from?

It was President Bush Sr. who plucked him from exile to represent the Palestinians in peace talks with Israel.

Is Bush saying you have to get rid of him? Or is Bush just saying that he has to go before we'll listen to your BS anymore?

[monkeyshine]

1993 I think. A sham. His only opposition was a 72 year old woman.

[Spiff]

Well, this is going to put Bush in a bad spot. After what he said today, he's actually going to have to finally let the Israelis wipe the desert with those sand fleas. Or will he? Anyone here a betting man?

[d4now]

he's such a pu$$y.

[monkeyshine]

That's what his boyfriend says.

[Ronin]

Unfortunately I think you are right. 48 hours on the outside.

[Light Speed]

It looks like the Palestinian political lobby in the U.S. has overplayed its hand..and assumed some fantasy position with the Bush admin.
The President laid the law down today...Its Freedom and Democracy..the war on terror will continue,those opposing it will be isolated and dealt with.

I can't remember one single instance where any Muslim or American Muslim on a T.V. interview blessed America for Her resolve to bring Democracy and Freedom to others....All that is heard from them is the we muslims..we palestinians, we,we,we..
Even that sleazy Zagoby....continues to do the guilt run .
This crowd has been on the tube too much..and held Americas focus.
Its time to shove this wreck known as Islamic moral perspective off the road.....and leave it in the ditch.

[Bamaconservative]

Seemed to me that Bush gave the Israelis the green light.

[Optimist]

Arafat was "elected" in '96....hmmm a 6+ year term? and I think that "elections" were postponed due to the "crisis"; but dont worry, the PLO will hold free and fair elections again as soon as they decide who the Palestinians are going to elect

[Fabozz]

20 January 1996, to be precise. His opponent, as monkeyshine said a 72-year-old social worker, received all of 45 minutes of air-time the day before the election on the PLO-controlled media (i.e., the only Palestinian media there is), while Arafat conducted countless hours of live, prime-time speechmaking. Arafat doesn't even enjoy the legitimacy of, say, Robert Mugabe—at least Mugabe had a genuine opponent that he had to lie, cheat, steal and intimidate votes away from.

[monkeyshine]

The quislings in Europe and the whiners in Araby have insisted that we try to bring the parties together for peace. They said we didn't do enough. They said we were disengaged. They said we were shirking our responsibilities.

So what did we do? We got involved. We sent Zinni. We sent Powell. Each and every time they went, a homicide bomber murdered a bunch of Jews.

Bush has finally told them that we're done doing things their way. There is an American way of doing things, and this is how it's done: 1) Stop your whining and take some personal responsibility. 2) Stop calling for violence in the media and in the mosques. 3) Stop the racist sh!t in your state controlled media. 4) Get a Constitutional Democracy with separation of powers, and get some leaders who want peace. 5) Go talk to Israel about getting peace. All in that order.

He made it clear we can help in many ways. But first, they have to prove themselves worthy to receive our help. Any help we offer them now would be a waste of our time and money. We are not their nannies, and we are not going to impose a peace on Israel. If you want peace, go get peace from the only people capable of giving it to you. And if you don't want peace, then deal with the consequences.

It's about time an American leader stood up to represent American ideals in international relations. It's a far cry from Clinton's coddling of dictators, thugs and moneymen for his own self aggrandizement.

[D-fendr]

Title should read:

Arafat dismisses call to dismiss Arafat.

Maybe he can go visit Clinton and cry in their beer together.

[leftiesareloonie]

Bush's policy of putting off provisional statehood -- what kind of statehood that is I don't know -- until Arafat is removed may look good on the surface, but it seems to me a policy counterproductive in the extreme.

Ask yourself who he imagines will replace Arafat and how he imagines the replacement will happen? I imagine that it would take a bloodbath among the Palestinians to bring this about. And I don't see any incentive for secular, democratically inclined Palestinians to risk such a bloodbath -- especially since Bush's promised payoffs are so inchoate and indefinite.

Why would it take a civil war, you ask?

Well think like a Palestinian.

Suppose you are a Palestinian of the Hamas, Hezbullah sort. You desparately want to replace the secular Palestinian Authority with an radical Islamic "government." If so, you have no interest whatsoever in the "vision" Bush laid out in his speech of a democratic and presumably secular Palestine. Nor do you have any deep interest in peace with Isreal. You want to destroy Isreal, not negotiate peace with it. How do you react to Bush's proposal? Despite the fact that you totally reject Bush's vision, you should react with utter glee because it sets up a trap for your secular Palestinian brethen. The only way they can move toward their secular state is by kowtowing to Sharon and Bush. You would love to have the US joined at the hip, in Palestinian opinion, with Sharon. And you would love it even more to be able to portray the secular Palestinians as the whipping boys of the Sharon-Bush axis of evil (to coin a phrase.).

Okay. Now take the other side. Suppose that you are a secular Palestinian who loathes both the corrupt and ineffectual Arafat and jihadists like Hamas, et al. You would deeply love to see a modern, democratic state of the sort Bush envisions. What do you do. In your secret heart of hearts you say that Bush is right about the best course forward. But you worry deeply about how to get there from here, about how to bring the majority of Palestinians, who mostly are suffering angry and alienated, along to your cause? Do you do so by dumping the very guy who is in some sense the father of your resistance movement on command, as it were, from Sharon and his toady Bush? HOw would that sell in the streets of Palestine? HOw would you radical islamic opponents play that one up?

You can't accept Bush's approach. If you do, you undermine Palestinian unity -- which despite all the differences among you is a powerful weapon in your favor. Imagine that the slaveholding south and the free north had not made common cause in the American revolution. Would the Revolution have succeeded? To be sure, the failure to deal with the deep divisions among you may have far reaching consequences in less than a century -- just as in the American Revolution. But you are trying to give birth to a nation. You believe you can put off dealing with internal divisions until after the nation is born.

So in order not to breach the fragile unity of your disparate people, you too reject Bush's vision (at least publically and for the moment.) But Bush has set it up so that if you reject his vision, the only alternatives before you are either decades of further repression and occupation or armed struggle.

Which do you choose?

Maybe you and the jihadist form a united front. Maybe you declare a Palestinian state right now. And devote yourself to armed struggle entirely. Maybe you call on all "right thinking" people of the world, people who love freedom and rejecty tyranny and oppression to side with you, to understand your need to wage war against Isreal.

Speaking again in my own voice. It may be that I'm just a dark souled pessimist. (I am at least that, the only question is whether I am only that). But I do have to say that if I were a secular Palestinian, I would believe that I have just been told that there is no hope short of civil war, without having been given any incentive to engage in such a war. And if I were a jihadist, I would believe that I have been given exactly what I want and that the only way the secularist can "isolate" me now -- which they have always wanted and have been unable to do -- is via civil war. Moreover, I would rejoice at the thought that short of civil war, the option of a peace which I cannot endure -- a peace that produces two states, a jewish state and a secular palestinian state -- has effectively been taken off the table indefintely.

[Light Speed]

I've been busy on several Vietnam era websites researching the history of a family member who was a "Gunny" with 3rd Marine 3rd Battalion , Mike Co.
Visiting such places is good for perspective..and reveals the character of Americas armed forces.

Although the political/socio debate thing has held the medias focus...the U.S. armed forces are prepping with certain resolve.
Carrier Battle groups are being rested and re-furbished... logistics and munition re-supply are underway.
The U.S. armed forces are quietly going about matters....soon they will appear on the doorstep of those who threaten Freedom.

"Saddle up" and go get em!..is the word from the Vietnam generation...
The Arab world is about to find out that the U.S. is very serious concerning the issue of its National safety.

[bybybill]

Think for a minute. First , GWB is not Clinton. The people around him are experienced grown ups. They don`t do everything in public, in fact, they hold their cards real close. Bet they already have cut a deal with the Saudis and Egypt to put pressure on the Palestians to dump Arafat and that the Saudis will bankroll a Palestian nation that supports real peace. Interesting that Syria is now in the spotlight. ,p> Never forget, through all of this, Iraq and Iran, are the targets.

God bless GWB