Alright… I guess heres my questions about what this all would really do.
If Arafat where to run again and get elected… Why? What major things has he done for the Palestinian cause since the war (Turkey? I forgot the country at the moment) in one of those neibghoring countries?
If someone else got elected, do you think the US Policy would change? You can name who you would think would get elected if that helps to answer the question…
Don’t be afraid to go off on tangets… I know my questiosn are kinda screwy but I’ve been getting about 2 hours of sleep a night for 8 nights now so I’m having a bit of trouble with coherency.
I am 100% sure that he would not be elected if the Palestinians had free and open elections. (Which they have not had yet.) I would hope that a true reformer (In other words, a ‘not terrorist’) would be elected.
I am also 100% certain that Arafat and his cronies will not allow free and open elections for the Palestinians. A terrorist like Arafat, who ordered the deaths of however many people, will have zero qualms with rigging yet another election.
I find it mildly amusing that defenders of Arafat point out that ‘he was elected!’. Sure, nice election. Between the murders, bribes, intimidation, and other deceptive actions by Fatah, the Palestinian people should have saved themselves the trouble of actually voting, since the outcome was rigged.
Sorry if I’m going off topic here, but you got me thinking. Are there any prominent opposition candidates to run against Arafat? I’m not trying to make a statement here, I’m just interested. Are there any big names in the Palestinian domain who want to negotiate peace and co-existence with Israel? Are these people exiled or well known by the ordinary Palestinian, and would they have a real chance of being elected if the elections were fair?
Also, do the Palestinians have access to unbiased media coverage? Who controls what they get to see? I heard Bush’s recent speech was unlikely to be heard by the man on the street over there.
It wouldn’t matter in the least. The conditions were twofold: new elected leader AND a total stop to bombing. In other words, when hell freezes over. The problem is that the extremes of both sides do not want peace. The Israeli right is not going to give up their settlements and buffer zones and on-again-off-again military prescence in Palestine. And the Palestinian right is never going to give up until Israel is no more.
So the Israeli right encourages Bush to put in a clause about no bombing, knowing that there will always be SOME nutjob group dreaming of Israel’s dissappearance willing to blow themselves up. No matter what anyone else in Palestine does, as long as the nutty sector keeps pumping, nothing is going to change. All Palestians are terrorists, and deserve whatever they get, amen.
Last question first - Probably not. One of the lesser, but still highly unfortunate side-effects of the recent increase in tension has been the sky-rocketing “popularity” of hardliners generally and Arafat in particular. I put popularity in quotes, because he isn’t well-liked, really. Quite the opposite from what I’ve been able to gleen. He seems to be regarded by many as the joke of an autocrat that he is. But for better or worse ( worse ) he is currently seen as the symbol of Palestinian leadership. Unlike Brutus I predict that if “free and fair” elections were held tomorrow, he’d probablty win in a cakewalk. A few years ago it might have been a different story.
An example of a prominent moderate would be Sari Nusseibeh, the PA’s “unofficial” ( since they have no legal status there ) representative for Jerusalem, a controversial recent appointment by Arafat. He’s controversial because he’s a moderate. Unstintingly critical of both sides, but that includes an opposition to violence by Palestinians ( including a condemnation of suicide bombing ) and a low regard for the current intifada, which he calls a ‘convulsion, rather than a uprising’. He also has been savaged ( by Palestinian militants - literally, actually ) for meeting with Likud politicians to dialogue. He has a certain quasi-feudal name recognition in Jerusalem at least, where the Nusseibeh’s are one of the two most historically prominent Muslim families, the other of course, being their perennial rivals, the militant Husseini family from which Arafat hails. He has some standing among Palestinian intellectuals ( he’s an Oxford-educated doctor of philosophy ) and moderates in general. His political position is also enhanced by his leadership role in the first intifada of several years ago, though he retired to academia for a fewl years afterwards and has only recently re-entered the political sphere.
Unfortunately moderates are in short supply among the Palestinians these days. I doubt his constituency, at this moment in time anyway, would be large.
Absolutely not.
Arafat, largely. Though organizations like Hamas have their own street-level propaganda machines.
Actually it probably will, at least in some form. The problem is, nobody likes to be told what to do - Telling the Palestinians they must get rid of Arafat is, perversely, quite likely to enhance his position.
Thanks, Tamerlane, you answered my questions perfectly!
I looked up Sari Nusseibeh, and it was heartening to read his more moderate take on the situation. I particularly liked his line… “The average Israelis are just the same as the average Palestinians… and just as human.”
Let’s hope sense ultimately wins through and this nasty cycle of violence and revenge will end. At least it seems there are reasonable people ready to preach something positive.
I won’t say its completely fair, but I still say the ball really is int the PA’s court. The problem is, most on the PA team want to hog all the glory and the rest want to keep slamming the Isreali team. Of course, every time they do, the Israeli team starts beating back.
Are there any prominent opposition candidates to run against Arafat? I’m not trying to make a statement here, I’m just interested. Are there any big names in the Palestinian domain who want to negotiate peace and co-existence with Israel? Are these people exiled or well known by the ordinary Palestinian, and would they have a real chance of being elected if the elections were fair?