MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/20: There are many reasons the Palestinian people are suffering so terribly, worse by the year in fact, and are now endangered by the possibility of a second "nakba" (disaster). We have dealt with most of the reasons over the years, and indeed there are so many. But among these reasons are some the Palestinians themselves usually cover-up, whispering among themselves but never in public or in print, and certainly never taking the situation in hand and doing something about it.

Yasser Arafat, going back a very long time, has a now tragic history of appointing yesmen and flunkies to represent him in key locations. The main reason seems to be that he fears risking in a role representing the Palestinians in important places any who might either outshine him or have differing opinions and views than his. It's a trait Arafat shares of course with some of the other dictators and clients of the region. Loyalty -- and not to the Palestinian cause but to the leader personally -- is far more important than competence and integrity when it comes to those Arafat annoints.

This is the situation that has then led to such a coterie of flunkies and yesman "representing" the Palestinian people -- mediocre individuals at best who are dressed up these days in expensive suits and paraded from one appearance to the next babbling one repetitious inanity after another. Most tragic of all, over quite literally decades now, great amounts of money and even more precious time have been quite literally wasted by these Arafat "representatives" who have not managed at all to even begin to accomplish what should have been their major task. For the most important thing that should have been done all these years is building up strong personal and working alliances with groups and individuals beyond their own incestuous circles, preparing for the day when these allies would be needed to speak up and act up in serious ways.

That day has come of course. But the failures of these yesman and flunkies are so notorious that there's not a lot more to say about all their failures, their incompetence, their mediocrity, and in the case of the long-time U.S. representative, Hassan Rahman, his corrupt and self-serving ways (plus of course his personal fat bank accounts).

The private stories about Hassan Rahman are legend in Washington, but few who are Palestinian dare to speak up publicly, and the Arab League all these years has not only tolerated but encouraged Rahman's stupidities and various forms of petty corruption. So just one sadly telling and typical story of recent vintage about Hassan Rahman at the moment.

Earlier this year a monthly newspaper that goes to the Diplomatic community and circulates to official Washington did a story about what is happening in the Middle East and featured on the cover none other than the Israeli Ambassador, a man with quite a notorious past which of course was mostly sanitized and applauded. Toward the end of the cover article the publisher noted that they had repeatedly attempted to contact the Palestinian representative in Washington to discuss the situation in the Middle East, but he never even troubled himself to return their phone calls!

Now as we said, this is typical Rahman and typical Arafat regime -- no accountability, no professionalism, in the end no dignity and no allies. But then maybe there is some method to this madness after all, for maybe Rahman was afraid the publication was in fact trying to be even-handed and would then want to do a cover article about him and his career and accomplishments in some future issue!

Palestinian representation in Canada is another example of this sorrowful tale that has lead to such a squandering of Palestinian funds and a tarnishing of Palestinian reputations:

In Ottowa Arafat's rep is a busy typist who spends most of his days forwarding all kinds of often-times nonsensical and laughable commentaries apparently designed to present an illusion that he is a busy man doing something of great import. Baker Abdul Munim is his name, and here is what he actually said recently, apparently thinking he was defending his boss and no doubt his cushie job (complete just as he wrote it): "Oslo has not stopped Israeli expansion, but slowed it down a bit, which in itslef is an accomplishment. Oslo brought with it some form of self government which we didn't have before, Oslo brought a small armed forces to the occupied territories, which has given us some strength. Oslo brought home some 40,000 exiled Palestinians, etc. A flawd process, but one that moved the situation which was getting us deeper and deeper into exile and loss of land. If the cards are played well, we can turn things around and establish our own state which a few years ago seemed a mere fantasy."

And here's what one of the on-line Palestinian activists had to say back to another of Arafat's flunkies, "Dr. Munim": "...We know what Oslo made of the PA. Oslo tried to achieve, via the negotiating table, what Israel could not achieve militarily and diplomatically: i.e defeating the Palestinian quest for self-determination, and sapping their will to resist. Arafat and the PA fell in that trap. As soon as they gave up their military option, they had nothing to bargain with. Israel is not going to give the palestinians their land back out of a sense of justice or a sense of pity. It has to be forced to. Colonisation has to be made so costly to them that they will be in a hurry to move out. I can't tell if Arafat and the PA intended to be corrupt (certainly, Arafat has always been a sucker for Western recognition), but this is what Israel and the Us intended it to be. A corrupt leadership, dissasociated from their people's sentiments, and reliant on US and European funding. A leadership that does what it is told, AND WHOSE SOLE MISSION IS TO POLICE THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIANS. The only thing the PA has been allowed to establish are security services, prisons and spies among their own people. Why do you think Sharon and the US are adament in putting so much pressure on Arafat (it's almost comical) and the PA when the whole palestinian people are furious? They are treating Arafat as THEIR LIEUTENANT. Nobody is calling a cat a cat, but since 1993 Israel has succesfully managed to make the PA an integral and effective component of Israeli expansions, thefts and crimes. Whether the PA intended it or not, I think we should leave it to the historians. The important is to learn the lessons and swiftly move on."