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Last update - 04:41 30/07/2004
Good morning, New York Times
By Yoel Marcus
Over and over, I read the editorial calling for Arafat's resignation and all I could say was: "Good morning, New York Times." It's taken the paper the better part of a decade to finally grasp what many Israelis feared after Oslo: that Arafat was not capable of making the move from leader of a militant liberation movement to leader of a state-in-the-making, with all the status and responsibility that come with it.
The New York Times wrote, and I quote: "It's been the misfortune of the Palestinian people to be stuck with Yasser Arafat as their founding father, a leader who failed to make the transition from romantic revolutionary to statesman. All he seems capable of offering Palestinians now is a communal form of the martyrdom he seems to covet ... That the Palestinian lands are in total ruin, that the fruits of the Oslo accords are in tatters, seems of no importance to him. His reflexive insistence that this is all the fault of `Zionists,' the West, other Arabs, is unsustainable. Arafat himself bears a large share of the responsibility for these misfortunes."
This about-face by The New York Times has really given Arafat's dwindling prestige the final push. Terje Roed-Larsen blamed Arafat this week for the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Colin Powell called him a master of yo-yo rhetoric.
With three opinions on every subject and a degree in doublespeak, Arafat is a pro at fooling the public. He's never kept to any agreement and has turned his nose up at every possible offer. Clinton, Bush, and now John Kerry, are united in the belief that he is an obstacle to peace. Even Shimon Peres told Javier Solana that Arafat is a fruitcake.
In the Palestinian Authority he is also being raked over the coals. Hanan Ashrawi ripped him to shreds in a Swiss newspaper and told him to go home. "The time has come to put this solo performance behind us," she wrote.
Dr. Ibrahim Hamami, a prominent Palestinian physician, says Arafat has become a liability to his own people. "You treat the Palestinians like a pair of shoes," writes Hamami, "to be worn or kicked aside as the mood strikes. The solution is for you to pack your bags, take your crooked friends and go somewhere else. Just go. Get out of here!"
Many times, since Arafat came to Israel as a beribboned peacemaker planning to establish a Palestinian state, I have wondered in this column why, as soon as he set foot here, he began to incite his people to war and terrorism. Didn't it ever occur to him that a Palestinian state would rise or fall over terror? What did this Nobel Peace Prize winner think? That the Oslo accords were a license to terrorize the country and spill Israeli blood?
From his first day here, it was obvious that Arafat was suffering from schizophrenia. He couldn't decide what he was: the head of an emerging state, a terrorist ringleader or a globe-trotter. He built around himself a corrupt Mafia-style regime with the gang he brought over from Tunisia. He kept a handle on things by greasing palms, torturing his rivals and brutally bumping them off.
I am not belittling Israel's role, with its overuse of force against the Palestinian Authority and the widespread destruction it has caused. But somewhere along the line we began to realize that we are sick and tired of living year after year in the grip of bloody terror.
There was a time when both Clinton and Barak offered Arafat 97 percent of the territories. Arafat's response was the Al-Aqsa Intifada that claimed thousands of lives. Israel is now preparing to leave the Gaza Strip. But Arafat, over in the Muqata, is busy sabotaging the start of Israel's withdrawal from the territories and dragging his people down into the depths of despair.
"Occupation" is not some kind of magic word that makes everything okay. Once Israel was under occupation, too - British occupation. Our leaders fought the British, and the British hit back hard: They arrested, deported, shot and hung. But the struggle did not keep our leaders from building infrastructure for the day the state was born. Not only has Arafat built nothing, but he has turned the Israeli right into the majority. It's hard to say which is worse.
Arafat is now in the classic dictators' bind: The moment he weakens, the Palestinians will rebel against him. Which means he will hang on for dear life until enough is enough, and the Palestinians - and only them (not Israel, God forbid) - get up the nerve to settle the score and kick him out. Now, they even have a permit from The New York Times.
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http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1091072358041&p=1078027574121Arafat: This land belongs to the Palestinians
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Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JEURSALEM POST
Jul. 29, 2004--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Thursday told dozens of Fatah activists that "this land belongs to the Palestinian people" and said the Palestinians will bow only to God.
"Those who are near and far should know that this land is the land of the Palestinian people, whether they like it or not," a defiant Arafat said.
He added that the Palestinians would continue their struggle until the liberation of Jerusalem, when "one of our roses and children raise the Palestinian flag on the walls, minarets and churches of Jerusalem."
Scores of Fatah activists converged on Arafat's compound in Ramallah to express their solidarity with him in the aftermath of the recent political and security crisis in the PA. The rally was organized by the local Fatah faction in coordination with the PA leadership.
It was the biggest show of solidarity with Arafat since the crisis erupted two weeks ago with a spate of kidnappings and protests against his decision to appoint his cousin, Musa Arafat, as overall commander of the National Security Forces in the Gaza Strip and rampant corruption.
Sakher Habash, a top Fatah leader in Ramallah, said Arafat was now stronger than ever. "Although he has been under siege for three years, Arafat remains a powerful leader and symbol," he said. "He has proven that the siege is the source of his strength, and not his weakness."
Habash claimed that the corruption in the PA was due to the ongoing siege imposed on Arafat. He said some corrupt Palestinians had taken advantage of the confinement of Arafat to advance their personal interests.
The PA on attacked the US for questioning the credibility of the deal reached earlier this week between Arafat and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed scepticism on Tuesday over the Arafat-Qurei deal, saying Arafat seemed to retain control over the PA security forces.
PA Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath urged Washington to focus instead on Israel's failure to fulfil its promises to the US.
"Before Mr. Powell questions our credibility regarding the reform steps that we are taking, he should guarantee the implementation of the empty promises given to his administration by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon," Sha'ath said.
Sharon has "implemented nothing" of his promises to the US, he told the daily PA's official daily Al-Ayyam.
"What is the credibility of talking about an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip while Israel is expanding settlements at the same time," Sha'ath added.
"What credibility is there when Israel talks about the implementation of the roadmap while pursuing its policy of assassinations, invasions, demolitions and the construction of the wall?"
In another development, German surgeons have amputated the leg of Palestinian legislator Nabil Amr, who was shot by unidentified gunmen at his home in Ramallah last week.
Amr's right leg was amputated from the knee down due to severe nerve and muscle damage from two bullets fired at him while he was sitting on his balcony. The shooting took place shortly after Amr, 57, criticized Arafat's performance during a television interview.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack and no suspects have been arrested. Arafat aid last week that he had ordered a thorough investigation into the shooting.
However, Reuters quoted PA security sources as saying Arafat has called off the investigation into the attack, blaming Israel for shooting Amr.