BARAK FADES, ARAFAT TWISTS, PERES MANEUVERS

For all practical purposes Ehud Barak is gone and Yasser Arafat is now desperately trying to save his own skin. That's why Arafat blasted away at Barak before the international elite at Davos on Sunday, closing the door on even meeting again with Barak in his final days, unable in any serious way to help save him anyway at this point. With Shimon Peres at his side, one has to wonder in fact if this isn't a final attempt to push Barak over the edge and substitute Peres in his place. In the Israeli election system such a move could take place as late as just four days before the election on 6 February. Arafat has survived in power for a very long time by constantly twisting, turning, and pleasing various masters. But all bets are off at this point. And its war that is truly looming, not peace...certainly not anything even close to real just and lasting peace -- and that's with or without Peres, or Arafat for that matter.

ARAFAT BLASTS ISRAEL, BUT HOPES FOR PEACE
By John Zarocostas

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The President of the Palestinian authority Yasser Arafat accused Israel Sunday of waging a savage and barbaric war and a blatant and fascist militaristic aggression against his people during the last four months, but pledged to continue with the peace process.

The attack by Arafat during a World Economic Forum (WEF) less then 24 hours after Palestinian and Israeli negotiators ended six days of talks in Taba, Egypt, and one week before the prime ministerial elections in Israel on Feb. 6 forced Israel's minister of regional co-operation, to take the podium, for the second time, in a bid to counter the strong attack.

Peres said he had come to the forum " prepared for a wedding and not a divorce, " and said that the Israeli government does not want to see a single Palestinian lose their life and observed that Intifada and street violence was partly the cause.

Peres said, "our choice is not to be the masters of the Palestinian lives" and added that " a good neighbor is better than a good gun." "I think we can put an end to violence," said Peres, a former prime minister, and one of the architects of the Oslo peace accords of 1993.

He said the differences today between the two parties in the talks are "2 to 3 percent", noted Israel was very sincere in its pursuit of peace, and emphasized "lets make the extra mile, it depends upon us, nobody else."

Arafat posed the question "is it the peace of the brave?" and after a pause added "we hope so and we will continue together."

Egypt's Foreign Minister Amre Moussa, said the issues remaining in the Israel-Palestinian negotiations are of maximum sensitivity and stated there is a need, "to put an end to the confrontation between the two parties."

He said, "its time to close the file of animosity " between Arabs and Israeli's. Moussa said at Taba, "some gaps have been narrowed but we have a long way to go."

A Middle East ambassador, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the Taba talks the two sides identified the gaps on territory, security, refugees Jerusalem and the final status."

Arafat told the president of the WEF Klaus Schwab he hoped to invite all" on a very close day . to convene your Forum in Holy Jerusalem, the capital of the independent state of Palestine."

The Egyptian official observed that that it is not a hopeless peace and "we are moving and we want to see Jerusalem and open city .. a capital of both Palestine and Israel."

A former senior U.S. State department official said, "a lot will depend of the election situation." This view was shared by a senior Arab diplomat close to the talks who remarked things will be "very difficult" in the weeks ahead.

Congressman Jim Colby, R-Ariz., told UPI, "I find myself very discouraged about the outlook."

Colby said Prime Minister Barak put an offer at Camp David that gave 95 percent of what the Palestinians wanted and they did not even respond with a counter-offer.

"So it does not seem to me they (Palestinians) are interested in having an agreement. So I'm very pessimistic about getting an agreement. The two or three percent (gap) might as well be 92 or 93 percent as far as I can say I don't think it makes all that much of a difference."

Similarly, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and a member of the foreign relations committee, said it was clear Shimon Peres was talking to a Davos crowd and Arafat to a Palestinian crowd."

Dodd said Peres had to answer to some " dreadful accusations made by Yasser Arafat, and they needed to be responded to but I think Shimon Peres had the upper hand ground here so he responded to.

He added " but as a famous speaker in the U.S. House of representatives once said, politics is always local, Davos is not local."

Asked if a change in government in Israel will affect the peace process, Dodd said: "I think it will. It will slow it down tremendously, probably delay it significantly, unless there is some conversion on the road to Damascus I don't expect Mr. Sharon to be willing, in fact he has made it quite clear that he would not accept any agreements reached .So I expect this to be a difficult time ahead of us. I hope not, but I'm very worried that will be the case."

The senator said that the statement by Peres would not be well received in Jerusalem. "He didn't answer the accusations that were made, and he had to do that. So this is not helpful."

Arafat told a packed auditorium here of over one thousand business and political leaders, which included U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, that "whoever wants to really achieve peace and seeks it with belief and sincerity, does not resort to killing, persecution, assassination, destruction and devastation as the government of Israel and its army of occupation".

He said in the last four months the number of Palestinian martyrs has exceeded four hundred and the number injured has exceeded 17,000, including 5,439, and that Israel had used weapons containing depleted uranium.

As a result of Israel's policies, said Arafat, 75 percent of the Palestinian people are now living below the poverty line, and that Israel had destroyed public and private property valued at $2.4 billion, dismissed our workers, closed factories," so much that 90 percent of our workers are forcibly unemployed," and cut down 100,000 fruit trees.

Document: President Arafat addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos January, 28 2001

[IMRA: Arafat made this speech less than 24 hours after Israeli FM Ben Ami declared at a press conference at Taba that "peace in our time" was just a matter of weeks away. While Minister Shimon Peres, who shared the stage with Arafat at Davos, declined to defend Israel at the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Barak reacted to Arafat's presentation by announcing that he would not meet with Arafat before the elections in Israel on February 6]

FULL TEXT OF ARAFAT SPEECH AT DAVOS
(As prepared by PNA)

Mr. President

Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders and members of the participating delegations

Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me first, Mr. President, to convey to you, a special greeting on convening this important economic forum. I would like to express to you, as well, our sincerest thanks and our deepest appreciation for your kind invitation to this gathering in this year. I highly appreciate the efforts you have undertaken in the planning for and the organization of bringing together this important number of experienced personalities and decision makers the world over.

For years, we have participated in your Forum. We are doing it today, because we believe that the Davos Forum is important and because it contributes to comprehensive economic and social development on the regional and international levels. It is a forum where the horizons of positive and constructive cooperation as well as, the interaction among the economies of the various countries take place. This happens through developing economic and trade relations based on participation, exchange of experiences and mutual benefit to the best of the common interests of the countries and institutions participating in this Forum. This is done in a way that creates a positive economic atmosphere among states, delegations and institutions. This in turn, fosters the already existing economic and trade relations and founds for new horizons of economic and trade cooperation and exchange, and contributes, in a valuable manner, to the development and growth of the world economy as a whole. It leaves good repercussions on the levels of income for individuals and societies.

When we talk about economics, there is no way but to talk about politics because of its great influence on economics. The relationship between the two is a dialectical one. The influence of the political situation on the life and economy of any nation, people or country is a huge one - indeed it is quintessential and decisive.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, how many tiring efforts we have undertaken, to raise our Palestinian economy that was handed over to us totally destroyed by the Israeli occupation. There were no institutions and no infrastructures. The whole economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory poured into the Israeli treasury. There was no existence of any projects or institutions for the development of the Palestinian economy and society. Israel was set on exploiting all of our economic and natural resources in the interest of the economy of its occupation. This left negative repercussions and destructive consequences on our economy.

Over seven years of hard and continues labor, we worked to create an economic environment conducive to investment, development and growth.We made big efforts to establish our institutions and the necessary infrastructures. >From here, I would like to thank all our brothers and friends, for the help they have extended to the Palestinian people. It is a help that assisted us in making the projects of economic development and growth succeed, despite what we faced in terms of obstacles, impediments and difficulties, which Israel had, and still does, put in the face of our developing economy.

Israel has delayed the operational functioning of the airport. It has not allowed us to start building the seaport. As you know, these two, the airport and the seaport, are important and vital institutions. In addition, Israel has obstructed other projects, important to our economy and to our people e.g. the electricity and water and other projects. The Government of Barak, as well as the preceding Government of Netanyahu, practiced the policy of economic strangulations, closures and siege, as well as starvation and collective punishment against our Palestinian people.

The current Government of Israel is waging, for the last four months, a savage and barbaric war, as well as, a blatant and fascist military aggression against our Palestinian people. In this aggression it is using internationally prohibited weapons and ammunitions that include in their construction depleted uranium. In addition, Israel is laying against us total siege, indeed, worse than that, it is imposing this siege against every village and town. It is prohibiting the freedom of movement and travel of our people. It is jeopardizing the basic human rights of our Palestinian citizens, dismissing our workers, closing our factories, destroying a number of these, so much so that 90% of our workers are forcibly unemployed, destroying our farms and fruit trees and prohibiting export and import, indeed it is forbidding us to receive, from brothers and friends, donated provisions. All this is in violation of all resolutions of international legality, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Human Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War.

Have you seen a more ugly policy than this policy of collective punishment or more destruction in the contemporary age? Israel is putting all of our people in confrontation with this dangerous military escalation, and its occupational, settlement, aggressive and armed expansionism as well as in confrontation with its dreams of achieving territorial and regional gains at the expense of our people, in a manner, which is in contravention of international legality and the rights of our Palestinian people to their land, Christian and Islamic holy places and to their natural resources.

Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders and members of the delegations,

Whoever wants really to achieve peace and seeks it with belief and sincerity, does not resort to killing, persecution, assassination, destruction and devastation as the Government of Israel and its army of occupation are doing to our people these days and since four continuous months. The number of Palestinian martyrs has exceeded the four hundred. The number of injured persons has exceeded seventeen thousand, of whom 5439 are children. These are the human losses and damages. The grand total, so far, of the economic and financial losses in all sectors, as a result of destruction caused by the Israeli occupational military machine, to the infrastructures and to public and private property and other losses is US $ billion 2,4 including the heavy losses inflicted on the Palestinian farmers as a result of cutting more than one hundred thousand trees and leveling of 10000 dunums of land (1 dunum = 1000 m2). This, of course, leaves destructive consequences on the livelihood of the Palestinian citizens and the Palestinian investment. Added to these losses should be those caused by the Israeli shells, from tanks, artillery, planes and rockets, to the buildings, establishments, installations and institutions, such as schools, colleges, churches and mosques.

This is a very short resume? of what has befallen our society in terms of dire human and material losses and as a result of the situation of total siege and closure. As a result, the percentage of those who are living under the lineof poverty has risen to 75% and general national income has decreased sharply in millions of US dollars annually.

While we confirm to you, dear friends once more, our adherence to a comprehensive, just and permanent peace, the peace of the brave, as a firm strategic choice of our Palestinian people, we look up to you, and to the United Nations and to all justice-, freedom-, peace- and democracy - loving forces the world over, and to all brothers and friends, to approach the vital and influential international forces in the world, so as to bear their moral and human responsibilities in order to work in sincerity, objectivity, neutrality and fairness, to find a quick and just solution to the Issue of Palestine, in accordance with the spirit of right and justice and the international resolutions related to Palestine.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, that we have made great concessions and sacrifices in order to achieve comprehensive, just and permanent peace. Yes, indeed, we have accepted less than one quarter of the total area of historic Palestine. We accepted, at the Madrid Peace Conference, the principle of land for peace on the basis of [UN] Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which call for the withdrawal of Israel, the occupying power, from all Arab and Palestinian occupied territories, including Holy Jerusalem, to the fourth of June border lines; the dismantling of every thing the occupation has built in terms of settlements and settlement structures that have no basis of legality; and the implementation of [UN General Assembly] Resolution 194 on the Palestinian refugees. We have achieved, as well, peace agreements with my late partner Yitzhak Rabin, in making the peace of the brave, which guarantees us the establishment of our independent Palestinian state, with holy Jerusalem as its capital.

We look forward to the whole international community, the United Nations Organization and the vital and influential international forces, to work for ending this Israeli war and aggression against our unarmed people; a war and an aggression which constitute a flagrant and blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War. We ask for the provision of international protection for our people immediately, the lifting of the siege and closure and the ending of this escalating military aggression.

Our Palestinian people, ladies and gentlemen, look up to you to help them in realizing their inalienable legitimate national rights so as to be able to march forward on the road of development and construction of their homeland, to catch up with the developed and advanced course of international economy, and to live with dignity, freedom, sovereignty and independence in their homeland, Palestine, like all other peoples and states in the region and the world, in a framework of confidence, mutual respect and good neighborliness with their surroundings.

Finally, we reiterate our thanks to you, Mr. President, for inviting us, and for giving us the opportunity to address this august Forum. We wish you success and good luck in realizing the noble aims of this meeting. We express our sincere hope and firm desire to have the honor to invite you all on a very close day, God be willing, to convene your Forum in Holy Jerusalem, the capital of the independent State of Palestine.

Peace be with you all.