Dahlan calls for Arafat's replacement, then denies it

"The Palestinian people are looking for a way out, they are looking for a Palestinian leadership to take them to this exit," said former Palestinian minister of security affairs Mohammad Dahlan in an unprecedented call to replace Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Dahlan later backtracked and emphasized, "Arafat is the elected leader of our people."

Dahlan, 42, the former Gaza security boss who served as minister under former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), gave a number of interviews to the international media over the weekend, including The Times of London and the Canadian Globe and Mail. In the interviews, Dahlan clearly stated that the Arafat era had come to an end, and that the Palestinians should elect a new leadership.

"Our experience together - the international community, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, the States - has really failed, finally," Dahlan told the Globe and Mail. "To be frank with ourselves, it's failed. We have to change our role. We have to change our way of thinking, of working, of implementing our commitment. The Israelis should do the same."

"Enough is enough. We have to elect a new leadership. I think the new generation will be part of the future," he said.

According to the Canadian paper, Dahlan is a "Palestinian prince in the waiting," who is "fast emerging as the most powerful Palestinian of his generation. He is seen as one of the few people who could unseat Mr. Arafat in an election," the paper said.


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I believe someone said that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Were they joking ?

The last election was in 1969, I belive. A one time vote doesn't make a nation a democracy. Napoleon III learned that the hard way.

Now that's revisionist history. (Or dyslexia).

He sees himself as a successor and cannot wait long enough for the old man to die or be martyred. But he is not one who will take his place. The older generation has tained itself both by collaboration with Israel in exchange for the illusion of power, himself included in this roll call, or by monumental corruption that stems out from their effective collaboration with the occupyers.

The Palestinian people will look either to one like Barghouti or to those in Hamas, when the old man is buried. Particularly Barghouti, for he is one of the few in Arafat's ranks that has not corrupted himself and would stand firm with Palestinians' best interests in mind rather than lining his own pocket. Polls indictate Marwan as the most popular Palestinian political figure besides the old man, and above Rantisi.

...That is, if he's ever released from his prison and show trial.