A Fateful Choice for Arabs

DLC | New Dem Daily | November 18, 2004
A Fateful Choice for Arabs

As Palestinian Arabs begin to prepare for elections in January to replace Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority, the choice they face is increasingly clear.

Mahmoud Abbas, whom the leadership of Arafat's Fatah Movement appears to have chosen as its candidate, has long made it known that he considers the Second Intifada to have been a failure, and that he advocates a shift to political means -- supplemented by nonviolent resistance -- for achievement of a Palestinian State. Just yesterday he pledged to "end the public display or show of arms" in Palestinian-controlled areas, and said: "We have to move on to a new era. We will act firmly against anyone who violates the law so that we can make the citizens feel secure."

There remains some doubt about Abbas' willingness and ability to enforce this principle against those planning attacks on Israelis. But there's no ambiguity at all about the man who may be his chief rival for Palestinian leadership, Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti is currently languishing in an Israeli jail for his role in planning operations by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the fruit of Arafat's decision to compete with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the suicide bombing business. As a National Public Radio report this morning reminded listeners, Barghouti has consistently embraced the idea that resistance to the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank justifies "any means necessary," a not-so-subtle code phrase for lethal terrorist attacks on Israeli noncombatants.

Some observers consistently treat Barghouti as the representative of a "younger generation" of Palestinian leaders who have spoken out against Arafat's long history of financial corruption and self-aggrandizement, while regarding Abbas as Arafat's successor among the "older generation" of Fatah officials. But in the most crucial respect, it's Barghouti who stands for the moral corruption of Arafat's duplicitous attitude towards diplomacy and politics as mere tactics in an armed struggle with the Israeli people that justifies "any means necessary."

It's important for Americans and Israelis alike to put aside their tendency to regard all Palestinian Arab leaders as essentially the same, and to send clear signals that Abbas' apparent willingness to renounce terrorism represents the right fork in the road that could lead to peace and a Palestinian State. And even more importantly, given the financial and political support they have long afforded the Palestinian Authority, Europeans need to show their understanding of the choice Palestinians face goes deeper than the uncritical praise of Arafat that has followed him into the grave.

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Interesting article. For me the Palestine/Israel conflict goes back to Abraham's ultimate sacrifice. Was it Isaac or Ishmael?

Sarah vs Hagar. Israel vs Palestine. Men vs Women. Rich vs poor. Hierarchical thinking has the world in a mess.

Abraham should have offered himself rather than his child. My God would have never asked for the sacrifice of a chid. Never.
Who will lead Palestine is the question of the day.
May all find the Promised Land.