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Upcoming
from MER "Washington Scene":
Washington Palestinian Regime:
Georges
Abed & Hishmeh, Sharabi, Farsoun et.
al.
"All
Jackasses" laments former
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insider.
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REMEMBERING
RECENT HISTORY
THE ARAFAT DISASTER
Mid-East
Realities - MER -
www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/10/04:
If only Yasser Arafat, Abu Ala, Abu
Mazen, Nabil
Shaath, Saeb Erakat, Yasser Abed-Rabbo and the whole 'Palestinian
Authority' regime would have been gone long ago. The Palestinians
could hardly be worse off. Maybe the only thing Arafat and
Company could have done worse would have been to sign more of the
duplicitous agreements the US and Israel concocted for them...and so
rewarded them for. But Arafat only balked at the end of the road,
only when President Clinton and General Barak were desperately trying
to ram him with Camp David II's 'final settlement'; or is the right
word ream.
Of course this isn't the
conventional history of
what has happened in recent years in the so-called 'peace
process'. Indeed the
propaganda arm of the US and Israel has been as powerful as its
military, 'intelligence', and covert ops. While of course the worst of
historical
condemnations should be reserved first for the Israelis as the primary
perpetrators of what has happened in the once Holy Land, then for the
Americans for making it all possible, and then for both the Europeans
and the United Nations which have
been so complicitous at times so cowardly at others, that leaves the PA
and the Arab regimes for such miserable ineptness and impotence.
Indeed the Palestininian leadership - Arafat's 'Palestinian Authority'
- has been
so tragically inept, so pathically impotent, so internally
corrupt...need we go on?
Today's flashback goes just a few years into
history. But just a few years takes us to before what is now
called
Intifada II erupted, before 9/11, and to the period in fact when MER
was
speaking up quite against the grain even as Yasser Arafat was still the
most frequent foreign guest
to the Washington White House.
And soon, upcoming from MER, more 'Washington Scene'
insights about a similarly ineffective, incestuous, and pathetically
unsucessful group we now will start calling the 'Washington Palestinian
Regime'. Among its key players - Hisham Sharabi, George
Abed, George Hishmey,
Halim Barakat, Samih Farsoun, Michael Saah, et. al.
Most of the time the Washington
discussion
these days is about the neocons and the extended Israeli-Jewish
lobby. They are after all the powerful, the successful, the
well-organized.
But they have succeeded as well because this 'other side' has been so
incompetent, disorganized, incestuous and
self-serving. And at the heart of this 'other side' are the group
of
Washington Palestinians whose saga is so demoralizing; a
group that has done more to prevent the emergence of any effective
pro-Palestinian lobby in Washington than to bring it about.
Four
years ago this
month MER published this article titled "The Arafat
Disaster". So many others were so wrongly hopeful and
mistakenly optimistic. Yasser Arafat was still the most frequent
foreign visitor
to the White House. Ehud Barak
was the subject of such positive and uplifting reports coming from the
corporate and the 'liberal' media. Bill Clinton and his
Israeli-oriented-approved staff were pushing hard. A Palestinian
State, peace, and prosperity were being continually proclaimed as
preparations
were underfoot for that summer's marathon Camp David negotiations, the
culmination of what began on the White House lawn in 1993. But
the independent experts knew better then even if they were rarely given
a chance to speak up. And MER had been begun some years earlier
precisely to give expression to "Mid-East Realities".
Today, as the 'roadmap' unravels in deceptive, as the 'peace
process' itself is exposed as a cruel hoax, and as the Israelis talk
about 'dismantling'
Gaza settlements even as they further expand others faster
than ever, this reminder of the recent past now it seems so long ago:
MER FLASHBACK
Originally
published March 2000
THE ARAFAT DISASTER
MER
- www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington -
3/20/00:
The "Authority" of Yasser Arafat, the
newest of the "client regimes" installed in the Middle East, would be
such a laugh if it were not so historically tragic.
Arafat's corrupt,
repressive, and mediocre negotiators are coming back to Washington this
week trapped with agreements and in a process that they are now both
unable and unwilling to free themselves from. Their handlers,
money-men, and consultants have prepared the way toward the "final
settlement" -- most of these in tow with the Israeli-Jewish lobby
itself which completely dominates the Clinton Administration on matters
Middle-Eastern and twists the Arafat regime to its will, no matter how
much the public pretense is otherwise.
Inept, corrupt,
repressive -- those who know Arafat and friends best know that these
are mild adjectives that only hint at how badly the destitute
Palestinian people have been misled from one tragedy to the next by
those who have squandered not only billions of dollars but the very
legacy of basic Palestinian rights.
Still "represented" by
Hassan Rahman in Washington -- a petty little man who has stolen
millions for himself over the years -- and constantly manipulated by
Nabeel Shaath (working closely with if not for the Americans) who is
always at Arafat's side, the Arafat regime is more of a disaster than
most Palestinians ever imagined..
And by the way, for
those who may have forgotten, the widespread demands for Shaath's
removal and indictment which came even from the Palestinian Legislative
Assembly have been totally pushed aside -- the "Arafat regime" is now
more clearly than ever in the service of the Israelis, the Americans,
and the other regional "client regimes" that also owe their origins and
survival to their foreign patrons, certainly not to their own people.
Each agreement signed
by Arafat since Oslo has been worse than the previous. Each
agreement has further squandered basic Palestinian rights recognized in
innumerable U.N. resolutions while further reducing the freedoms of the
now doubly captive Palestinian population -- except of course for the
small number of "VIPs" whom the Israelis have annointed with special
privileges, transit passes, and bank accounts.
The very man who
represented Palestinian aspirations as head of the Palestinian
delegation at Madrid and Washington, Haider Abdul Shafi, has resigned
in disgust and called what has taken place a disaster which requires
the Palestinian people to disavow what has happened and start
over. This can only happen of course once Arafat, Shaath, and the
"authority" they control are no more.
Those living under
Arafat's control, under the regime of the "authority" and the
"occupation", are all fearful. Be they activists or fighters,
students or intellectuals, the mechanisms of control and repression
have been ever-tightening since the Israelis and Americans decided to
twist Arafat to their purposes at their time of maximum power in the
wake of the Gulf War. Not only was this an unprecedented time of
division and demoralization for what is left of the once proud "Arab
world", the Clinton Administration in Washington is the most
pro-Israeli American government of all-time, literally seeded with
people from the Israeli/Jewish lobby which helped bring Clinton/Gore to
power.
Today's entire "Peace
Process" deception is built upon these larger realities in order for
the U.S. and Israel to be able to pursue a "new world order" of
continual domination in the Middle East and elsewhere. The
overall situation facing the Palestinians, and indeed all who cherish
basic concepts of justice and true peace, is what can be done about the
predicament the "Arafat regime" has placed them in. The following
commentary, which we publish anonymously, comes from inside the double
occupation, from a thoughtful and courageous writer and analyst who
must by necessity phrase things in relatively diplomatic
language. But read carefully, and read between the lines, for
indeed the "most dangerous" moments still lie ahead...maybe immediately
ahead.
NEW ISRAELI PULLBACK:
THE MOST DANGEROUS PALESTINIAN CONCESSION
Military base by
military base, Israel is "pulling back" from abit more of the West Bank
which is to be "handed over" thereafter to PA forces. And with each
spot cleared from the departing Israeli soldiers, Palestinian flags
take over and waves of young and old Palestinians, joined by police,
gather, dance the dabkah, wave a flag or two, and leave with the sweet
taste of victory.
Unfortunately,
however, what may appear to be another triumph cultivated through peace
talks, contains an Israeli victory and symbolizes Palestinian
negotiators inability to achieve what has already been determined in
past agreements.
The Israeli negotiator
is no super man; there are reasons for the weakness of the Palestinian
team, and they are indeed many. The 5 January withdrawal was due 15
November. A disagreement, however, rose after Israel insisted, as
always, on implementing its own interpretation of the agreement.
Palestinians, who
asserted that the areas where Israelis proposed to clear were not of
strategic value for movement in the West Bank, hoped for a compromise.
Fifty days later, no compromise was made; Israel pulled out of the same
areas it proposed; Palestinians cheered for the pull-out and claimed a victory, and the U.S.
commended both parties for their patience and wisdom.
The agreement which
paved the way for the withdrawal, to please the Palestinian side
momentarily, contained a promise in which Israelis would be open to
Palestinian requests in sketching the map for the proposed 20 January
Israeli redeployment of an additional 6.1% of the West Bank.
Throughout the years,
Palestinians have learned not to believe in Israel's promises and the
latter was convinced of the same. Yet, the Palestinian agreement based
on an empty promise was in fact motivated by fear of Israel's ability
to neglect them, focusing solely on the Syrian negotiation front.
Time and again, PA
leaders have stressed their rejection of Israel's intentional delay in
the negotiations with the Palestinians. While Israel is willing and
able to afford delay (delay for Israel means draining Palestinians'
patience, cultivating thereafter more and more concessions), the PA simply cannot delay, as social
dissatisfaction is on a steady rise and the economic situation is
suffering terribly.
By 13 February, both
sides pledged to formulate a framework for a final peace treaty. The
chief Israeli negotiator, Oded Eran, who spoke with enthusiasm that the
13-20 February framework can be met, uttered that if an agreement was
not reached by mid-February, then it would happen only a few weeks later. The relaxed Israeli
mentality has been a very successful tool in weakening the
Palestinians' who are aware of the political and social consequences
that further delays could lead to.
Aside from their fear
of Israel's deliberate obstacles, Palestinians are also aware that
their refusal to sign on Israel's interpretation of the agreement puts
little pressure on the Israeli government.
Assuming that the
deadlock in the talks lasts much more than 50 days, what harm would
that do to Israel? Israel is indeed the excusable one in any case.
After all, its security is the one recognized internationally as being
under constant threat. And, after all, they are the ones enduring the
hardship of negotiating with two parties at once. For Palestinians,
without a strong
international resolution to oblige Israel, or the lack of a mechanism
to implement any resolutions, and with the soft American perception of
Israel and harsh treatment of Palestinians, waiting means nothing but
wasting time. Thus, it comes as no surprise that 50 days later,
Palestinians break under Israeli pressure.
Although the one-sided
peace compromise has often been repeated, the latest Palestinian
compromise is a dangerous one. Both sides are only one withdrawal away
from formulating the final status peace treaty. The recent Palestinian
concession has sent another reassuring message to Israel that Palestinians are still vulnerable,
fragile, defenseless and, as always, ready to crack. Yet bargaining for
the 5% or the 6.1% withdrawal will not be as consequential as
compromising with the future of Jerusalem, refugees' right of return,
water, settlements and borders. The failure of the PA to obtain a
meaningful agreement means the creation of the same similar unjust
circumstances that led to popular Palestinian revolts in the past.
Saying "no" to an
unjust agreement is not enough for Palestinians to convince Israel to
grant them their wishes. However, the fact that Palestinians possess
little more than their rejection of Israel's unfair negotiations makes
"no" the only option available. And in the midst of a difficult reality
that surrounds Palestinians, whether it be Arab fragmentation or
Israel's political influences, patience and endurance backed by
national unity just might compose a long-term winning strategy.
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