"With wealth greater than that of Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon.com ($1.23 billion, according to Fortune magazine), Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat could pour his money into new housing, hospitals, and health care.
For $1.3 billion, 40,625 six-family dwellings could be built for PA residents ($32,000 per unit).
It could feed 3 million Palestinians for an entire year, and leave $892 million to be spent on 1,000 mobile intensive care units ($69,900 each), as well as funding for 10 hospitals, such as Gaza's Ahli Arab Hospital, for 10 years, leaving $585m. to fund other social projects such as:
Computerization of 10 hospitals at a cost of $4.57m.
The annual salaries of 10,000 medical employees ($4,200 each).
Hepatitis vaccinations for 3 million PA residents ($11.25 per injection).
The price quotes are based on statistics of NGOs providing humanitarian assistance to the PA, presented by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee."
HA'ARETZ
Saturday, May 11, 2002 Iyyar 29, 5762 Israel Time: 16:50 (GMT+3)
Inside Track
Deconstructing Yasser By Amir Oren
"This week George W. Bush allowed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to shrink Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to his true dimensions. The recommendation that emerged in the defense establishment, following discussions that were held ahead of Sharon's visit to Washington and that were renewed in the wake of his meting with Bush and the Rishon Letzion terrorist attack, was to give priority to the establishment of the "Second Authority" - an improved version of the current Palestinian Authority. The image is of dismantling and putting back together, rather than toppling. Did de Gaulle establish the Fifth Republic in France? Well, Bush and Sharon will establish in Palestine - with a weakened Arafat or without him - the Second Authority, which will replace the first one, crafted by Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton. (...)"
The captured documents and detainees 'interrogation prove beyond
any doubt that the PA General Intelligence and other security
apparatuses under Arafat's direct command ,who ,according to the
agreements between Israel and the Palestinians were supposed to prevent
terrorism from PA areas ,instead turned into a central element in
masterminding and encouraging terror and in assisting terrorist squads
.to perpetrate terrorist atrocities in Israel
The Involvement of Arafat, PA Senior Officials and Apparatuses in Terrorism against Israel, Corruption and Crime
Prepared by a team headed by
Dani Naveh
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
Introduction
"This report brings some very grave facts to your attention. Israel's military operation "Defensive Shield" has obtained clear-cut hard evidence that the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat is a supporting encouraging and actively operating body of terror. Arafat and his close aides are directly responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Israeli citizens.[...]"
forrás:"http://www.agsconsulting.com/news/nw011124.htm"
Arafat faces war crimes charges in Belgium The Guardian
November 24, 2001 "Thirty Israelis with relatives killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks are to bring a case against Yasser Arafat in a Belgian court, taking advantage of a 1993 law that allows Belgium to try foreigners for war crimes committed abroad.
Their decision puts Belgium in a difficult position, because 28 survivors of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres in Beirut 19 years ago have lodged a similar complaint against the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, using the same legal mechanism.
That case has embarrassed the Belgian Government. As present holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, it is supposed to be playing a key role in advancing the Middle East peace process, and it has found that difficult while its courts have been considering whether to prosecute Mr. Sharon for war crimes.
The complaint against Mr. Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, will be lodged at the high court in Brussels on Tuesday, the day before it is to decide whether Mr. Sharon can be tried for the Sabra and Shatila killings.
The case against Mr. Arafat does not relate to a single incident but seeks to hold him personally responsible for the death of "thousands of terror victims" since he "began operations in 1966". It accuses him of murder, genocide and crimes against humanity. (...)"
The Involvement of Arafat, PA Senior Officials and Apparatuses in Terrorism against Israel, Corruption and Crime
Prepared by a team headed by
Dani Naveh
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
Introduction
"This report brings some very grave facts to your attention. Israel's military operation "Defensive Shield" has obtained clear-cut hard evidence that the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat is a supporting encouraging and actively operating body of terror. Arafat and his close aides are directly responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Israeli citizens.[...]"
Sources: Bush agrees to peace talks only after Arafat removed By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Correspondent
"Sources in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage to Washington said Wednesday that U.S. President George Bush has agreed that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians must wait until internal reforms within the PA have brought about a governing body that "would be headed by a different person or different people" than the current leader, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
"It was clear that the chief [Arafat] must be moved to a different role within the PA, customarily to a symbolic position and the administrative responsibilities would be transferred to others," the sources said.
Sharon, who will convene his cabinet Wednesday night to dicuss a repsonse to Tuesday night's suicide bombing in Rishon Letzion that killed 15 people, will not present a proposal to expel Arafat, but rather is expected to adopt the American plan calling for structural changes that would lead to Arafat's removal from power. According to the sources, Bush and his advisors have proposed the establishment of a temporary government within the PA until a constitution is drawn up and elections are held.
The sources said that Bush also agreed that Israel would not hold talks with the PA until it has completed its internal reforms. The president did demand, however, that once the reforms have been carried out, the two sides must hold talks that would eventually lead to a final settlement.
American officials estimate that moderate Arab nations will support the U.S. proposal, but that Israel would have to sit on the sidelines and not get involved in order for the proposal to fully succeed.
The Americans understand that without these structural changes "there is no one to talk to within the PA and it is a waste of effort," the sources said.
Sharon broke off his U.S. visit and headed home Wednesday, after receiving word of the attack during his meeting Tuesday with Bush."
"Hónapokon belül külügyminiszteri színtű békekonferenciát rendezhetnek a közel-keleti helyzet megoldására - jelentette ki az amerikai külügyminiszter. Az Egyesült Államok Arafatot a tárgyalásos rendezés támogatására szólította, bár a Fehér Házban még nem szívesen látott vendég. Nem történt mészárlás Dzsnínben, bár az izraeli hadsereg háborús bűnöket követett el - állapította meg egy emberjogi szervezet.
"
forrás:"http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0lmv0"
Jerusalem 1 May 2002
Palestinian Authority Security Services were involved in directing attacks and preparing bombs by Tanzim operatives in the Jenin refugee camp (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
"Ahmed Hussein Muhammed Abu Jildeh, 28, a Tanzim operative and resident of the Jenin refugee camp, was arrested by IDF forces in the course of Operation Defensive Shield on April 10, 2002.
During questioning, Abu Jildeh admitted his ramified involvement in the Tanzim, including his participation in numerous terrorist attacks. Ahmed described the network of links between PA National Security and Tanzim members, adding that the former instructed the Tanzim operatives in preparing bombs and even supervised their actions.
Abu Jildeh joined the Tanzim about four to five months ago at the behest of Ziad Zabayde, a senior Tanzim operative in the Jenin refugee camp. Abu Jildeh joined a cell that was engaged in recruiting suicide terrorists, filming them as they recited their wills, preparing their bombs and dispatching them to perpetrate their attacks. He also admitted to transferring payment for the purchase of a rifle for use in a future suicide attack in Haifa. He personally took part in two December 2001 attacks in which shots were fired at the Jewish community of Kadim, near Jenin.
During the recent fighting in Jenin, Abu Jildeh, along with other senior Tanzim operatives, prepared bombs which were used against IDF forces. They purchased the chemicals for several of the bombs with funds supplied by senior Tanzim member Jamal Ahweil, who was also arrested in the course of Operation Defensive Shield. Abu Jildeh admitted to also helping to prepare approximately 300 bombs that were designed to be detonated by lit fuses. He also helped to prepare approximately 20 larger bombs with electric fuses, two of which were hidden near the refugee camp mosque.
Ahmed Abu Jildeh added that a senior member of the Palestinian National Security had instructed him and others in preparing the bombs and even stayed with them in the same apartment where they did their work. Abu Walid, responsible for security and intelligence in the Jenin area, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and an organizer of many military actions, frequented the apartment in order to oversee operations.
Ahmed said that Ziad Zabayde and Abd al Karim Aweis were responsible for the cell's links with Marwan Barghouti, from whom they received instructions and funds.
Abu Jildeh said that Jamal Ahweil regularly updated PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's office on the cell's members in order to receive funds."
forrás:"http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0lmw0"
Jerusalem 1 May 2002
Palestinian Authority Security Services supplied guidance, weapons & funds to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
"Nasser Abu Hamid, a senior member and founder of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who was arrested in the course of Operation Defensive Shield, has told his investigators that after the establishment of the Brigades in the Ramallah area, the Palestinian Authority supplied it with the names of senior operatives in other areas in Judea and Samaria with whom it had initiated contact in order to cooperate in perpetrating attacks and in fighting against the IDF.
Nasser Abu Hamid, 31, a resident of the Amari refugee camp, was a senior and founding member of the Al-Aqsa Brigades and a senior Tanzim terrorist who was responsible for shooting, bomb and suicide attacks in Judea and Samaria. He had previously served time in an Israeli prison after he admitted murdering five collaborators but was released in the framework of the Oslo agreement.
During his questioning, Nasser detailed how he had established paramilitary militias in the Ramallah area, which had perpetrated shooting attacks, and afterwards declared the establishment of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He received the names of terrorists in various West Bank towns from PA operatives in the Ramallah area, and made contact with them. Among these were Nasser Aweis from Nablus, Raed Karmi from Tulkarm, Abd al Karim Aweis from Jenin, Ataf Aviat from Bethlehem and additional senior figures who later became among the most prominent terrorists in the field.
Nasser described the considerable military and financial assistance that they received from the outset from Marwan Barghouti, Fatah Secretary-General in the West Bank, via the latter's nephew Ahmed Barghouti.
Nasser noted that senior PA security service officials entreated him and the militants subordinate to him to join their services and that Tawfik Tirawi himself, the head of General Intelligence on the West Bank, proposed that Nasser integrate all Brigade members into General Intelligence, including the payment of their salaries.
Nasser admitted that he ultimately decided - along with the members of his organization - to join Marwan Barghouti, given their prior acquaintance and the former's estimation that under the latter's patronage, it would be possible to step up his activity. Nasser's decision was adopted by his associates who agreed that Barghouti was the best choice for them. They also decided to adopt the name Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Nasser also admitted his involvement in numerous shooting, bomb and suicide attacks, including attacks in which Israelis were killed. Nasser added that National Security members participated in several attacks and even took an explosive charge from its stores for one of them.
Nasser said that several bombs were regularly kept in a jeep which had been permanently parked at the Force 17 roadblock in Ramallah for use in case of an IDF incursion into Ramallah.
Nasser sees Marwan Barghouti as both a supreme commander and a friend. In his words, the two of them planned their ascent into the Palestinian leadership when Barghouti made it clear that Nasser would advance along with him. Barghouti promised to build a special residential neighborhood for Nasser and his men and their families in the future. Nasser said that he was Barghouti's closest adviser and was aware of the latter's military activities, including the transfer of funds and war materiel to those who perpetrated attacks and assisting in the transport of suicide bombers."
forrás:"http://www.nj.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0539_BC_Israel-Palestinians&&news&newsflash-international"
Also on Sunday:
-- The Islamic militant Hamas group claimed responsibility for Saturday's rampage in the Jewish settlement of Adora in the West Bank that and killed four people, including a 5-year-old girl.
...no comment
...ha nem tűnt fel neked, ezen nem tudok segíteni - NEM az volt a kérdés, hogy vannak-e gondok az USA-Izrael viszonyban! ...arról volt szó, hogy az USA-Irak viszony tűnik átalakulófélben lévőnek ...mintegy háborús konfliktus felé átalakulófélben lévőnek
Ezt írtam korábban, kedves Vata, annak a cikknek a kapcsán, amit jónak láttál ad-hoc bemásolni. Sajnos, a bővített "magyarázatod" sem változtat túl sokat - különösképpen azért nem, mert tavaly 911 óta nem meglepetés az arab országok számára az USA "terrorizmus-ellenes" álláspontja. Ezért eléggé érdektelen a hivatalos (és az afganisztáni rendcsináló háborúval illusztrált) USA álláspont ismeretében ragozni Bush Sharont támogató politikájának járulékos "arab-bosszantó" hatását.
...ami az arab országok Irak mellett való kiállását illeti, ezt igen szépen demonstrálja, ahogy Irak bejelentette az olajtermelése csökkentését, és hasonló intézkedést kért a többi olajtermelő arab államtól - egyelőre hiábavalóan.
De ez messzire vezet... Nem is erről volt szó, ugyebár...
Mint már egyszer emlitettem, ha az angol nyelv gondot okoz, nagyon szivesen segitek. Csak szólni kell.
Az emlitett cikkben Buchanan azt taglalja, hogy Bush Saront támogató politikája azt eredményezi, hogy el fog jutni arra a pontra - ha még nincs ott - hogy nem lesz az az arab kormány, mely megengedhetné magának, hogy Amerika szövetségese legyen. Magyarán Amerika nem lesz képes igénybe venni támaszpontokat arab országokban, átrepülni arab légitéren, stb. Igy gyakorlatilag lehetetlen lesz bármilyen katonai kampány Irak ellen. Ez volt többek között a cikkben.
Az nem volt benne, hogy TALÁN, ESETLEG Nagy Britannián kivül nincsen szövetséges mely különösebben lelkesedne egy Irak elleni katonai akcióért, az amerikai haderő fele a tiz évvel ezelőttinek és még mindig le van kötve Afganisztánban és az arab országok kinyilvánitották, hogy egy Irak elleni támadást az összes arab ország elleni támadásnak tekintenék, mely persze csak szöveg, de talán jelzi, hogy ellenzik a dolgot.
De persze tudom, hülye vagyok és húzzak a ...ba. Sugárzik az intelligencia, kedvesch excusat. Persze ha másképp nem megy...
...kicsit elcsendesedik a légycsapó csattogása, a legyek kezdenek elszemtelenedni ...világos ügy, bérmártírra épp nem futja, fegyvesektől félnek, marad a könnyű célpont, civilek a faluban ...természetesen, Allah mégnagyobb dicsőségére ...hősiesen :-(((
Saturday, 27 April, 2002, 09:00 GMT 10:00 UK
Five Israelis die in West Bank raid
"Israeli police say five people have been killed and several injured in an attack on a West Bank settlement by at least one Palestinian gunman.
Israeli soldiers are searching the Adora Jewish settlement near Hebron amid reports that the attacker may be holed up in one of the houses there, possibly with hostages.
Around 14 people wounded in the attack were evacuated to hospital, the head of the area's ambulance service said.
Police and local radio said five people were killed when one or two Palestinian militants infiltrated the settlement and opened fire on residents.
It is the first deadly Palestinian attack on Israelis since a suicide bomber killed six people near a Jerusalem market on 12 April. (...)"
...jól van, ülj le, hülye vagy ...mi az isten köze van a Buchanan cikknek az USA "iraki probléma" PR-kampány építéséhez? ...figyelsz te egyáltalán arra, hogy mire válaszolsz, vagy csak copy-paste, hadd szóljon, ha nincs is semmi köze a témához?
...ha nem tűnt fel neked, ezen nem tudok segíteni - NEM az volt a kérdés, hogy vannak-e gondok az USA-Izrael viszonyban! ...arról volt szó, hogy az USA-Irak viszony tűnik átalakulófélben lévőnek ...mintegy háborús konfliktus felé átalakulófélben lévőnek
...na mindegy, elmész te is csak a ! ...többi közt. :-(((
"...ha az USA elkezdi megépíteni az "iraki probléma" megoldásához szükséges háttér-PR-kampányt, akkor hamarosan nekilát az "iraki probléma" megoldásának is"
Ezzel a háttér PR kampánnyal gondok lehetnek... Az általam nagyra tartott Pat Buchanan boncolgatta ezt nemrég egy cikkében:
Ariel Sharon is now contemplating annexation of half of the West Bank. So The Washington Times reports, and so Israel's Foreign Minister confirms. And if Sharon is that cocky, who can blame him? Indeed, why does he not simply annex it all? After all, who is going to stop him? Certainly not the Americans. In short order, Sharon has put Arafat under arrest, smashed his Palestinian Authority, killed hundreds of his fighters, locked up thousands more in camps and jails, eclipsed his rival Netanyahu, become the most popular man in Israel, and bested the president of the United States in a face-off, as the president conceded defeat by declaring him a "man of peace." For the old warhorse, it doesn't get any better than this. For the president, however, the price has been exorbitant. His humiliation by Sharon has left in ruins his policy of moving the Middle East war onto a political track, to keep the Arab nations allied and cooperating in his war on terror. Now the Arabs have begun to bail out. The king of Morocco stiffed Secretary Colin Powell, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was indisposed when Powell came through Cairo, and a confidante of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has told the New York Times, "The perception in the Middle East, from the far left to the far right, is that America is totally sponsoring Sharon – not Israel's policies, but Sharon's policies – and anyone who tells you less is insulting your intelligence." The confidante was blunt in his assessment of the president: "[Bush] made a strategic conscious decision to go with Sharon, so your national interest is no longer our national interest; now we don't have joint national interests. What it means is that you go your way, and we will go ours, economically, militarily and politically – and the anti-terror coalition would collapse. ..." The Saudis are probably bluffing. But if they are not, and if the president cannot change the perception that he cannot stand up to Sharon and bring him around to negotiate with the Palestinians, we may be headed for an oil boycott, expulsion of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia and a strategic disaster in the war on terror. For Bush, the hourglass is running out. The peace option, forging a Middle East settlement to keep the Arab states allied with us, is closing. Brimming with confidence, bristling with defiance, Sharon is not going to give up the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, because he does not believe in Oslo, land-for-peace, the Barak Plan, the Taba Plan or the Saudi Plan. He believes in Eretz Israel, and he believes the Palestinian Authority is a nest of terrorists that ought to be eradicated, not rewarded with a state. The president's dilemma is this: If he could not convince Ariel Sharon to stop rampaging through the West Bank, how is he going to persuade Sharon to surrender the West Bank? And if Bush cannot get Sharon to a conference table, to talk land-for-peace, he cannot keep Arab cooperation in his war on terror, let alone for a war on Iraq. Indeed, how and when does President Bush propose to take on Iraq? Seven months after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, President Bush's father had driven him out with a U.S.-led army of 500,000 men and 2,000 warplanes. But seven months after 9-11, George W. Bush has no army in the Persian Gulf, no allies, no authorization from the Security Council and no declaration of war from Congress, and public enthusiasm for a march on Baghdad has begun to wane. Has Bush missed the bus? Ironically, by acceding to the War Party's demand that he give Sharon a free hand, President Bush may have shattered the Arab coalition he needs to launch the War Party's invasion of Iraq. The time is fast approaching when Bush is going to have to choose among allies. If he sides 100 percent with Sharon and refuses to use his leverage to force Israel to talk and trade land for peace, his own reputation in the Arab world will come to resemble that of Sharon, and no Arab nation will be able to be seen as an ally of the United States. But if he chooses to confront Sharon and tries to force him to give the West Bank to the Palestinians, he will face a firestorm inside his own party – and accusations from Democrats that he is forcing Israel to submit to terror. How the president resolves this conflict will determine whether he succeeds or fails in his war on terror, and perhaps whether he succeeds or fails as president. In making such decisions, one consideration has to be paramount: the national interests of the United States.
"RAMALLAH, West Bank (CNN) -- An improvised Palestinian military court has convicted and sentenced to prison four Palestinian militants for the killing last year of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, according to a top Palestinian security official.
The trial took place inside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's besieged compound in Ramallah, and Israel was quick to dismiss the process and demand again that the suspects be handed over to Israeli authorities.
CNN's Mike Hanna reported the latest on the story from Ramallah.
HANNA: It's a bizarre situation, and certainly does appear to have been a bizarre legal process. It has been announced that four men, who were charged with the assassination last year of the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi have been tried and found guilty in a Palestinian legal process within the compound of Yasser Arafat.
Now, this compound has been surrounded and besieged by Israeli forces for a long period of time. The news of the conviction and trial of the four emerged at a time when I was speaking to the Palestinian information minister. He knew nothing about it.
And so, the situation is that these four men were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. One of them was sentenced to 18 years with hard labor. He was the one who the court found actually carried out the murder of the Israeli tourism minister. A man who drove the getaway car was sentenced to 12 years. The driver of the car was sentenced to eight years, and a man was also convicted of having known about the plot without telling the Palestinian Authority. He received a one-year sentence.
Now, what is bizarre about all of this is that the judge was a security officer with no previous legal background. A policeman in the compound was appointed attorney for the defense. So it is very much a bizarre situation, and this arising from the fact that there have been consistent demands for the trial and conviction and justice being done with those who carried out this assassination.
Now, the reaction from Israel has been pretty quick. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that, well, these men are just going to be tried twice, because he continues to insist that those responsible for the murder of the tourism minister are handed over to Israel for trial.
CNN: So this was sort of like an olive branch held out by Yasser Arafat to the Israelis?
HANNA: Well, very much so, on one level. There have been demands, and from the U.S. as well, a very strong demand last week from President Bush, that these men be brought to justice. The whole question of whether justice has been served in this case, well, that is open to debate. It was not a court. It was an extraordinary military tribunal, as it is called, a makeshift military tribunal.
But certainly, Yasser Arafat apparently [was] wanting to make clear that he is intent on bringing justice in this particular case, that he is taking action against those who assassinated that Israeli tourism minister.
However, from Israel's point of view, this is not enough, not even going into the debates about whether or not this was a proper trial. They continue to insist that the men must be handed over, a position that the Palestinians say is against every previous agreement and against the terms of the Oslo Accords, that it is not needed for the Palestinians to do so.
So there will be argument about this. There will be debate about it, but the Israelis continue to insist that this is meaningless on one level, that the men must still be handed over to an Israeli court for trial."
forrás:"http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-mowbray042502.asp"
April 25, 2002, 8:45 a.m.
Arafat, Elected? The sham 1996 vote. By Joel Mowbray
"In a New York Times earlier this week, former President Jimmy Carter casually remarked that the 1996 Palestinian elections were "open and fair." Carter, of all people, knows better — Yasser Arafat has never been fairly elected the leader of anything, let alone the Palestinian people.
Seven years ago, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) made its grand conversion from bloody terrorist outfit to a governing body with ostensibly fair elections. Over 600 international observers, including Carter, gave the process a seal of approval, and newspapers from Berlin to Los Angeles trumpeted the triumph of democracy in the Palestinian territories.
But the Palestinian people were conned — they believed a real election had taken place, and why wouldn't they? Throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, every wall and every street light had played host to posters with the red, green, black, and white colors of the Palestinian flag, and people walked into voting booths just like people in real democracies do.
There were over 700 candidates from a multitude of parties and slates, and politicians were pressing the flesh on every street corner. Turnout topped 70 percent, and Palestinians honestly believed that they had embarked on a path to true democracy.
But what seemed like a legitimate election was little more than an elaborate charade, a fraud perpetrated on the Palestinian people. The shenanigans started a few months before the international observers set foot in the Middle East.
Much like American primaries, Fatah held internal elections to decide the people to represent the party on the ballot for each given seat. Arafat, however, didn't like the results, so he cast them aside and created his own slate. Come Election Day, most of the "independents" who actually won council seats were Fatah members kicked off the official slate by Arafat.
Several groups, including Peace Watch, noted that Arafat and his minions had, in the months leading up to the election, intimidated political activists, arrested some political opponents, and bribed others to exit races.
Despite heavy-handedness by Arafat in the races for the 88-seat Palestinian National Council (PNC), at least there were real challengers for many of those contests. At the top of the ticket, however, Arafat only faced what could generously be described as token opposition.
The lone person to oppose Arafat on the ballot was a 72-year-old social worker, Samiha Khalil. She shocked the international press with what the New York Times labeled a "surprisingly high" number of votes. Her final, "surprisingly high" tally? 9.3 percent of the vote.
Even if a credible politician had taken on Arafat, however, he would have been unlikely to clear all the hurdles in mounting a serious challenge. Arafat had a stranglehold on the media, one he proved willing to maintain with force when necessary.
In a one-week period shortly before the election, Arafat had more than nine hours of speaking time on television, yet his opponent was never mentioned during those seven days. In response to criticism from foreign journalists, Khalil was finally granted 47 minutes on air at the eleventh hour.
When Arafat didn't have a media outlet in his pocket, he would bully and intimidate editors to get the press coverage he desired. A month before the election, Jerusalem's largest Palestinian newspaper, Al Quds, was told by the PLO to run a story about Arafat's meeting with a Greek Orthodox leader on the front page. On the same morning the story ran on page 8, PLO armed guards arrested Al Quds editor Maher al-Alami, "detaining" him for six days.
Upon his release, al-Alami, who was not the only Palestinian journalist arrested that month by the PLO, unsurprisingly had sharp words about the influence of the man then poised to win the rigged election, noting that "the Palestinian media follow his instructions out of fear."
Fear is a tactic well-known and long-employed by Arafat. "Arafat has a long history of using violence and the threat of violence to beat back perceived threats to his leadership of the PLO and now the PA," says Jim Phillips, Mideast policy expert for the Heritage Foundation.
That an older woman who could barely attract handfuls of curious onlookers at her campaign events was the only challenger at the top of the ticket should come as no surprise. Someone with an actual chance of garnering public support likely would have faced reprisals, including arrest, torture, or worse.
Former CIA director Jim Woolsey dismisses claims that Arafat was democratically elected, quipping, "Arafat was essentially elected the same way Stalin was, but not nearly as democratically as Hitler, who at least had actual opponents."
Given that potential opponents were intimidated or bribed to drop out of races, Arafat dominated television airtime, and there was only token opposition in the campaign for chairman, the natural assumption would be that the international observers would expose the election for the sham that it was. That assumption would be sadly mistaken.
While monitoring the 1996 election, former President Carter ignored all evidence of Arafat's wrongdoing, and instead zeroed in on the role of the Israeli Defense Forces patrolling Jerusalem. "There's no doubt [Israelis] are doing everything they can to intimidate Palestinians," said the former peanut farmer on the day of the election. There was credible evidence to suggest some voter intimidation by Israelis in Jerusalem, but for Carter to focus solely on that not only paints an inaccurate picture by omission, but also harms the Palestinian people in the long run, denying them the democracy they thought were getting.
The steadfast refusal of the international observers to highlight the significant PLO corruption in the months prior to the election colored the news coverage of the vote here in America.
The Sunday New York Times blared in its lead sentence, "Voting in their first general election today, Palestinians gave a broad endorsement to Yasir Arafat's leadership in building their homeland." To this day, the urban legend of Arafat being democratically elected has real consequences.
"The tragedy of this is that it allows people to create a moral equivalency between Sharon and Arafat, when in fact none exists," comments Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum.
Maybe Arafat would have won in a free and fair election, but he didn't. Propagating the myth that he was "elected" only serves to illegitimately legitimize his status as a democratic leader. Perhaps Arafat is the most popular Palestinian leader, but for all the wrong reasons. He achieved his pole position through thuggish tactics, not a democratic election."
...mik nem vannak? ...sehol sem tűnt fel az utolsó (jó)néhány évben ez a bizonyos 88-tagú "Palestinian National Council (PNC)"?! ...a hivatalos palesztín site-okon sem találtam semmi hivatkozást a PNC-re. ...nyilván rosszul kerestem :-(((
