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"YOU" POPE - "LEADER" ARAFAT
MER - WASHINGTON - 17 March:
"...there have been many reports that he (Arafat) is
very tired. The trembling in his lips is weaker, and
at meetings he is quieter and more introverted than
in the past. He stares a lot and it is not clear that
he is attentive. His outbursts of anger and his
yelling are becoming more frequent."
"YOU" THE POPE
Israeli's Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau has announced he will call the Pope of Rome "You" during his visit to Israel and would refuse to use any other titles.
Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Ministry indicated that Israeli government officials would refer to the Pope with the title of "His Holiness" because "that is what he calls himself... We will use it as diplomatic protocol and simple courtesy."
NO SUCH COURTESY FOR ARAFAT
It's interesting though that Israeli government officials refuse to refer to "Palestinian Authority Chairman" Yasser Arafat as "President", though that is what he calls himself. Moreover, when Arafat is in Washington, a new term has caught on -- though Washington is neither as formal nor as precise about these matters. Here the Palestinian Chairman, Authority, President, is referred to as "The Leader" by some trying to make a clear point. There are other names for the Old Man however, including "Chief" and "Warden" to mention only a few of the less offensive ones.
The Israelis are desperate not only to keep Arafat ticking, but to get him to sign away as many Palestinian rights as possible and to conclude something they will call a "final settlement" regardless of Palestinian terminology.
The same goes for Arafat's possible successors. In public they
say principled and sometimes bellicose things hoping to be believed by
the Palestinians masses. In private they are urging Arafat to "be
moderate" and make the agreements with the Israelis that they themselves
would hesitate to make and in fact could not make. Hence the great
dangers of the moment as the Israelis and the Americans prepare to cash
in with Assad and Arafat as both fade into history. Read carefully,
the following article from the Israeli newspaper "Ha'aretz" suggests part
of what is essentially a plot to trap the Middle East in agreements signed
off on by Hafez el-Assad and Yassser Arafat (following of course in the
wake of King Hussein) while they are down, defeated, confused, and dying.
ON THE WAY UP AND ON THE WAY DOWN
Abu Mazen and Abu Ala are the candidates to succeed
Yasser Arafat. Both are edging Arafat into moderate
positions so that he will bear the burden of
concessions to Israel
Ha'aretz - Wednesday, March 15, 2000 - By Danny Rubinstein:
The question of who will succeed Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat
has never been addressed in any Palestinian public forum, and even
in their
innermost sanctums, Palestinian politicians are reluctant to discuss
it. But
from time to time the issue creeps onto the sidelines of current events.There
are two main candidates: Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the secretary-general
of
the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
and
Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), the speaker of the Palestinian Authority parliament.
These two have been at Arafat's side as the most senior Palestinian
officials
ever since the Palestinian Authority was formed to govern areas of
the West
Bank and Gaza. There is no question that Abu Mazen has the best chances.
More
senior than Abu Ala, he serves as Arafat's number two man in the PLO,
the
Palestinian movement that has higher status in the territories than
the PA
government. (The PLO claims to represent the entire Palestinian people,
while
the PA represents only the residents of the West Bank and Gaza.)
Most of the leadership, including the heads of the Palestinian security
system, supports Abu Mazen. But it has seemed for some time that Abu
Mazen is
being pushed into a corner while Abu Ala's candidacy grows stronger.
Recently, Abu Ala has reappeared at the center of the diplomatic process,
taking part in all the important meetings - a change from the Netanyahu
period, when Abu Ala was barely involved in the talks. At that time,
the
explanation was that Abu Ala was serving as speaker of parliament -
that is,
the legislative branch - while the diplomatic process was being led
by
members of the Palestinian cabinet - members of the executive branch
like
Saeb Erekat, Nabil Sha'ath and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who are all subordinate
to
Abu Mazen in the PLO.
It turns out, however, that the matter of checks and balances and the
separation of powers is not the strong point of the Palestinian
government,and Abu Ala was once again seen at Arafat's side at the
recent
summit meetings. There has also been word of a series of secret meetings
he
has held with Israeli figures, with the aim of solving problems that
have
come up in the negotiations. In the middle of last week, Arafat brought
only
Abu Ala along to the nocturnal meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Barak
(along
with his aide Nabil Abu Rudeina). This was the meeting that brought
an end to
the current crisis and to the decision to renew the talks in Washington
at
the end of this week.
Abu Mazen was not at this important meeting because he was on a visit
to the
Scandinavian countries, but in the Palestinian leadership they are
saying
that even when he does take part in such meetings his presence carries
less
weight than it did in the past.The deepest cut to Abu Mazen's status
was
about a year and a half ago in the wake of the Wye Memorandum that
was signed
between Netanyahu and Arafat. At the time, there were accusations in
the
Palestinian public that Abu Mazen had conceded and had not insisted
sufficiently during the talks on the demand for the release of Palestinian
prisoners. The result was that instead of security prisoners, the Netanyahu
government released Palestinians who had stolen cars and laborers who
had
worked in Israel without permits.
Arafat was furious, and Netanyahu claimed that this was in accordance
with
the agreement. For the Palestinians, this became a bitter joke and
many
people, among them the families of prisoners, came to demonstrate near
Abu
Mazen's luxurious new house in Gaza. Abu Mazen thought at the time
that the
initiative for the demonstration came from the direction of some of
his
fellow members of the leadership, who were taking revenge and inciting
against him. There were also suggestions then that the background to
the
affair was a power struggle in the Palestinian upper echelons, where
there
are some people who would like to humiliate Abu Mazen in order to damage
his
chances of becoming Arafat's heir.
Last month, while the diplomatic process with the Palestinians stagnated,
Abu
Ala was heard loud and clear. He declared several times that the Palestinians
will not agree to be prisoners of the Israelis' moods. "We shall unilaterally
bring our police forces into Area B territories if we do not get them
back
from Israel," he said. This is an uncharacteristically sharp declaration,
and
Abu Ala's colleagues made this clear. At a meeting of the Fatah central
committee, which took place last week, members asked Abu Ala whether
he
understood that the significance of his statements was that the Palestinians
intend to enter into violent conflict with Israel, perhaps even to
engage in
battle, for control od these areas. After Abu Ala talked tough, Abu
Mazen
also decided to speak up. He came out with a statement that the Palestinians
would agree only to a full withdrawal by Israel from all the territories
it
occupied in 1967. This, too, is a very tough statement, the likes of
which
Abu Mazen had not made in the past.
Some Palestinian politicians raised questions as to whether Abu Mazen
is
suitable to head negotiating teams with Israel, because five years
ago he had
already agreed to concessions in a draft he formulated with (now Justice
Minister) Yossi Beilin. Throughout, Abu Mazen has repeatedly denied
reports
that the draft reflected his position, but many people in the West
Bank and
Gaza do not believe him.(The truth, insofar as it can be ascertained,
is that
the discussions of the draft agreement were never completed and therefore
it
is hard to know to which items in the draft Abu Mazen gave his final
agreement and which he rejected.) In any case, among the Palestinian
leadership there were those who thought that Abu Mazen's statements
last week
were an attempt on his part to eradicate his image as someone who makes
cowardly concessions. Despite the tough positions expressed recently
by Abu
Ala and Abu Mazen, it cannot be said that the two are competing for
the
position of the holder of extreme views in the PA leadership. The opposite
is
the case. Both of them have been pushing Arafat to moderate positions
throughout.
The reason is simple: The main aspiration of the two of them is that
Arafat
will complete the permanent status agreement, and sign it, and that
they will
not inherit from him the heavy burden of the tangled negotiations.
Everyone
in the West Bank and Gaza knows that only Arafat can bear the burden
of
concessions to Israel. Only a leader with prestige and power like Arafat
-
the symbol of the struggle, the father of modern Palestinian nationalism
-
will be able to deal with widespread opposition of the Islamic bloc,
the left
fronts and many others who will fight the agreement with all their
might. If
Arafat leaves the scene before there is an agreement, there could be
such an
uproar in the Palestinian public that no heir will be able to deal
with it,
neither Abu Mazen nor Abu Ala. On street corners in the West Bank and
Gaza,
people are joking that the problem of the two candidates to succeed
Arafat is
that they are sicker than he is. Arafat's health is a rather strange
matter.
On the one hand he is continuing at a frantic pace of work, which even
young
people would find difficult, and on the other there have been many
reports
that he is very tired. The trembling in his lips is weaker, and at
meetings
he is quieter and more introverted than in the past. He stares a lot
and it
is not clear that he is attentive. His outbursts of anger and his yelling
are
becoming more frequent. Not only the candidates to succeed him are
wishing
him health so that he will sign the final status agreement.
Many Israelis also think that if Arafat is not there, we will have to
wait
many more years until there is a leader of his stature, who will have
the
power and the ability to bring the process to a successful conclusion
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