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The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 39 Issue: 3 - Friday, December 03, 2004--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arafat's Legacy of Chaos
It could only happen in Israel. The newest candidate to be put before the Palestinian voters for Yasser Arafat's replacement as undisputed leader of the Palestinian people is another terrorist, currently serving five life sentences -- plus forty years.
Marwan Barghouti is one of the planners of the Palestinian uprising that Israel now calls, 'The Oslo War'. On May 20, 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Barghouti of three terror attacks in which five Israelis were murdered, and also of attempted murder, membership in a terror organization and conspiring to commit a crime.
He was acquitted of 33 other murders with which he was charged, due to lack of evidence. On June 6, 2004, Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms and 40 years for the murders for which he was convicted.
In March and April of 2002, during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, documents were discovered in Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound demonstrating that the "al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade" is directed by Marwan Barghouti, who passes concrete instructions to Al-Aqsa operatives.
The al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade was the cover name under which Arafat and Barghouti conducted the reorganization of Fatah as a terrorist group.
Fatah had chosen Mahmoud Abbas as its heir apparent. Abbas is a relative moderate who has consistently and publicly opposed violence as counterproductive to the Palestinian goal of a viable, independent state.
But when Barghouti heard that the Abbas camp favored an end to the intifada, Barghouti sent his wife to file the papers necessary for him to run.
Ariel Sharon responded by saying Barghouti will not be released from prison, but that he could campaign for the presidency "according to the conditions in the prison in which he sits."
Assessment:
Just last week, Barghouti had acceded to intense appeals for unity from Fatah leaders and bowed out of the race, declaring his support for Abbas.
That announcement prompted a flood of letters urging Barghouti to reconsider, said his wife, Fadwa. The outpouring prompted Barghouti to declare his candidacy hours before the deadline.
After lodging the nomination papers with the commission, Barghouti's wife read a statement from her husband:
"I have decided to enter this democratic battle to maintain the path of the intifada and the resistance and to defend it and protect it from being labelled as terrorism," he said.
Barghouti's announcement that he will run against Abbas threw the Palestinian leadership into turmoil. But in that turmoil is the first glimmer of hope that the Palestinians might return to the peace table in earnest.
While a week ago, Barghouti's name was being offered for consideration for Fatah's chosen candidate, this week, his name is less palatable among his colleagues.
After Barghouti agreed to bow out to avoid a split in the party, Fatah chose Mahmoud Abbas, also known by his nom de guerre ('war name' -- all the Palestinian 'peacemakers' have a nom de guerre) of Abu Mazen.
Once Fatah agreed on Abu Mazen, Barghouti's announcement that he would run as an independent was instantly branded a betrayal. Even some of Barghouti's supporters and fellow terrorists turned on him.
"We feel betrayed," said Saed Tarifi, who was Barghouti's right-hand man through much of the past decade in Fatah's West Bank central command.
"We would have expected a leader, a son of Fatah, to abide by the decisions of the party leadership. He has damaged himself and lost credibility within Fatah. The polls will give us the final verdict on his actions."
The Palestinians realize they can't win through terrorism and most of them have begun to lost taste for the fight.
Members of Fatah and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade cells will declare their support for Abu Mazen in coming days, or so Tarifi predicted in an interview with the AP.
He told reporters that activists trust Abu Mazen to 'achieve through diplomacy what they have previously struggled for through armed resistance'.
Khaled al-Sawhish is a co-founder of the al-Aqsa Martryrs' Brigade and is Israel's most-wanted figure among the Fatah leadership after Marwan Barghouti. Even he is backing Abbas and his plan to put an end to the intifada.
In an interview with a Palestinian newspaper, he said, I am one of the closest people to Marwan. I love him, I work with him. I can proudly say that Marwan is one of the best people in Fatah, but we have to stay away from emotions and affections."
Then he added; "If we were to follow our hearts, we would have chosen Marwan. But if we are to be realistic, we would choose Abu Mazen."
The Palestinian election for Arafat's replacement is shaping up as a referendum on the intifada Arafat left behind as his legacy.
On one hand is Abu Mazen, a 'moderate' by Palestinian standards, where on the other is Marwan Barghouti, a terrorist by anybody's standards.
Abu Mazen wants to scrap the violence and return to the negotiating table. Barghouti wants to continue the uprising until Israel gives in -- or there are no Palestinians left to resist.
Israel calls the current uprising the 'Oslo War' after the 1993 Oslo Accords that preceded it. The Oslo Agreement was divided into three stages, with the final stage, a negotiated 'final settlement' on the status of Jerusalem, to be concluded by September 13, 2000 -- exactly seven years after the Accords were first signed in the White House Rose Garden.
Instead, Arafat ordered the uprising, hence the Israeli designation as the 'Oslo War'.
The prophet Daniel says in Daniel 9:27 that the coming antichrist will 'confirm the covenant with many for one week'. The covenant's duration of 'one week' is a period of seven years. The Hebrews use 'sevens' the way the Greeks use 'tens'. A Greek decade is ten years, a Hebrew shabua (week) is seven years.
One cannot 'confirm' a covenant unless one first exists, any more than one can confirm a doctor's appointment that had never been made.
Israel's 'Oslo War' was the result of a failed 'covenant' between Israel and 'the many' dispossessed Ottoman Empire Arabs who claimed the status of 'Palestinians' after it was defeated in 1917.
The failed 'covenant' was drawn up by the Europeans in 1993, and it was to run precisely seven years. It collapsed over the issue of ownership of Jerusalem.
There are too many similarities between Daniel's prophecy and the Oslo Accords that sparked the Oslo War to be ignored.
Especially when considering the EU's efforts to replace the US as peace broker, the central role Israel's security wall will play, and the fact that the Palestinians are ready to sit down and talk, even if they aren't any more sincere now than they were in 1993 -- which is also a factor in the overall prophetic picture.
Arafat's legacy of political chaos created exactly the right climate for a return to the drawing board and a revival of Oslo. The only element missing is the leader of a revived Roman Empire to confirm it.
As the clock continues to tick.
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