COLUMN: Time is ripe for Palestinian reform
We’ve all heard from various news sources about the war going on between the Palestinians and the Israelis. We hear about people on both sides getting killed, whether it’s innocent Israeli civilians killed by homicide bombers, or Palestinian terrorists killed in response to those heinous attacks.
We’ve heard the Palestinians complain that they suffer at the hands of the Israelis. Let’s face it, because of their use of terror, Israel has been forced to take a number of extremely unpleasant, but necessary, measures to prevent these horrific crimes.
I’ve seen the Palestinians complain on and on about the roadblocks, searches, gunfire, lack of employment and the so-called “occupation,” by which they justify their acts of violence. But frankly, I have a hard time sympathizing. It would have been one thing if this had been imposed upon them with no justification whatsoever, but it is an entirely different situation when the freedom-loving nation of Israel is attacked in a deliberate and coordinated manner.
Every time one criticizes Palestinian terror, the reply is, “But that is because of the occupation. If there were no occupation, we wouldn’t do this.”
That answer is a lame excuse and a cop-out, absolving them of addressing any real problems or solutions, as they’d just continually redefine the “occupation” no matter what demands we give in to, until they’ve finally driven us into the sea.
The vast majority of their accusations have as much truth and reality to them as the statements made by former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said a-Sahaf, which can be found on the Web at www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com.
I am going to liken the current situation to a disease, its symptoms and the treatment thereof. So, let us treat the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as one body (after all, both peoples live in close proximity with and have numerous ties with one another) with a number of terrible symptoms.
The first symptoms started of as mass rioting throughout the body, which spread to lynchings, homicide bombings and machine-gun and mortar attacks against Jewish neighborhoods and communities.
Any attempt the Israelis made to resolve the dispute or at least lessen the violence was met with empty promises and deliberate inaction. Very quickly the Israeli leaders diagnosed the problem as a coordinated assault that was planned months in advance (which Palestinian Minister of Communications Imad el-Falouji later admitted to, as well as numerous statements in Arabic media that were made by both Arafat and Fatah chief Marwan Bargouti up to a half year BEFORE the start of the violence).
Israeli leaders realized that this war had cancerous characteristics and had spread to many organs the Palestinian society, entrenching itself wherever it could. Thus the Israeli response to that was the societal equivalent of chemotherapy – roadblocks, tanks, aircraft, searches, even targeted assassinations of those whom the Israelis knew were behind murderous attacks, but could not arrest.
As a result, Israel was forced to take many unpleasant measures it didn’t want to have to take, such as policing numerous Palestinian villages and cities and severely limiting employment of Palestinians in Israel.
With respect to the actual problem, it’s a lack of real leadership in the PA, albeit that there may be a few positive changes occurring. The problem therein lies with the Egyptian-born PA president, Yassir Arafat and several of his cronies, who got into power by murdering and intimidating any more moderate political rivals, as seen by the murders of hundreds of moderates labeled “collaborators with Israel” over the past few decades.
Arafat & Co. know that any real peace agreement with Israel would present them with two big problems. First, they’d be in violation of their own charter, which calls in numerous places for the violent destruction of Israel (the PA has claimed that these have been removed, but any language purporting to do such is so deliberately vague and ambiguous so as to be meaningless).
The second, more fundamental problem is that a peace agreement would effectively put them out of work. Let’s face it, if the Palestinians and Israelis were living in peace, the Palestinians would want the same democratic freedoms and transparency of government that the Israelis have, and they’d tell Arafat & Co., who embezzled billions of their aid dollars (www.inq7.net/wnw/2002/aug/19/wnw_3-2.htm, and www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/Style/style.html), where to go and not collect $200.
To illustrate the point, the PA’s new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), has been trying to form a new cabinet in the past few weeks that would work to end the terror and thus allow the peace to begin.
This presents a problem for Arafat, who would have to relinquish a large portion of his powers to the new PM. Furthermore, Abbas would like to nominate a number of people Arafat has issues with, such as Muhammad Dahlan, Arafat’s former security services chief, who was fired after numerous disagreements with Arafat.
Safian Abu Zayda, PA’s Liason with Israel, told Israeli TV Channel 1 that the chances of an agreement between Abbas and Arafat are unlikely, even without Dahlan, and that Arafat only agreed to have a PM in the first place due to international pressure. As of this moment, Arafat and Abbas are no longer on speaking terms, as numerous media reports state, due to Arafat’s lack of willingness to cooperate.
Simply put, Arafat feels like he’s going down a path similar to those of his close friends Nicolae Ceau_escu and Saddam Hussein.
Don’t get me wrong, I am no big fan of either Abbas or Dahlan, in fact I don’t like them in the least; the former is a Holocaust denier who only objects to violence out of practicality (www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Arafats_Prime_Minister.asp) and the latter a glorified terrorist.
But both people also realize two important things – that they aren’t going to achieve anything through violence against Israel and that the Israelis would sooner spend their time and money in Palestinian businesses than for a war on terror.
So what will happen next? Ideally I’d like to see the Palestinians get some sense into their heads, give their leadership the boot and form a democratic government that protects human rights and freedoms. But if not, then they’ll have to do the next best thing – see to it that Abbas gets to be PM with a cabinet of his liking, and then make him accountable to them.
If that doesn’t happen they’ll just have to deal with more of the same, i.e., more fighting with the Israelis, and we’ll have to hear more baseless accusations and complaints by the Palestinians and their supporters. It won’t be pleasant for Israel, but it will greatly deepen the Palestinians’ plight.
I strongly suggest that the Palestinians get their act together and deal with their real problems – a corrupt dictator and lack of a democratic, transparent government. The Palestinians need what the Israelis already have – a government by the people and for the people, which protects the rights and dignity of all people, irrespective of race, religion, color, creed, sex or sexual orientation.
Guy Serbin is a graduate student in plants, soil and biometeorology. Comments can be sent to gserbin@mendel.usu.edu.