Palestinian officials argued Saturday over who will get a key security post in their new Cabinet as they worked to resolve an increasingly thorny political dispute that has held up approval of the new government.
rearranging the deck chairs on the SS Arafat Titanic
The disagreement has been a political embarrassment for new Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, whose success is crucial to efforts to salvage the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
? It’s dead as long as they won’t dismantle the terrorist orgs
| I thought Ahmed had already hung it up? Who's next in line to be Paleo PM? Or are they just going to grab somebody off the streets every few days? |
The stalled plan envisions an end to three years of fighting and creating a Palestinian state by 2005.
Not gonna happen, since they didn’t take step one yet...I do construction schedules, and the crackdown of terrorists is on the critical path....
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian man was killed
killed huh? just walked in and shot him while he’s watching the Yankees-Sox playoffs? Those bastards!
as battles continued in the Rafah refugee camp along the Egyptian border, where Israeli troops were searching for weapons smuggling tunnels.
"Yo! Avner! Is that a tunnel over there?"
"Whre? That hole in the ground?"
"Yeah, that one."
"Nope. A boomer used to live there."
"How 'bout that hole?"
"Rantissi had his car parked there once."
"Cheeze! That one?"
"Ummmm... Nope. That was Shanab's last parking spot." |
The Palestinians’ political disagreement centered around the appointment of Nasser Yousef as interior minister, a position that would have at least nominal control of some of the Palestinian security forces.
Still trying to get Yasser’s spit off his face
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s refusal to give up full control over the security forces helped push former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas out of office in September after just four months. Arafat, who named Yousef interior minister in an eight-member emergency Cabinet less than a week ago, withdrew his support for his old ally after Yousef refused to participate in the swearing-in of the emergency Cabinet on Tuesday, Palestinian sources said Saturday.
wheels within wheels? Maybe Yasser’s mind is so gone he can’t remember who he appointed as puppets last week?
Yousef said he wanted to wait until the government had parliamentary backing. Some saw that as a brazen slight to Arafat, who presided over the swearing-in ceremony, and a signal of independence to U.S. officials, who hope to marginalize Arafat and convince the new Cabinet to crack down on militant groups, in line with the road map. Qurei has said he would not use force to dismantle militant groups.
Step one missed again...
The political troubles boiled over Thursday with the cancellation of the Palestinian legislature’s vote on the emergency Cabinet which would have turned it into a normal dysfunctional kleptocracy government amid arguments over its size and composition. In meetings Saturday of Arafat’s Fatah faction, the Palestinian leader said he wanted to replace Yousef with Hakam Balawi, some guy off the street his wife's former hairdresser a senior Fatah official, according to a Fatah official at the meetings. Qurei objected to dumping Yousef just a week after he was named, saying it would embarrass the government.
"I’m soooo embarrassed...and could you wipe off Yasser’s chin? He’s drooling again"
Violence continued Saturday in the refugee camp of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel’s military was battling masked future martyrs snuffies gunmen for a second straight day as it searched for tunnels used to smuggle weapons and drugs into Gaza underneath the border with Egypt.
| Didn't they say that before?... Thought so. Whoever wrote this isn't a linear thinker, is he? |
Helicopters flew overhead and bursts of machine gun fire and loud booms echoed through the camp’s narrow alleys.
A 19-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed, bringing to eight the total number of Palestinians killed since Israeli forces moved into the camp around midnight Thursday. Among the dead were two human shields children. More than 70 people have been wounded, including 11 Saturday. The army said troops uncovered and blew up three weapons smuggling tunnels during the operation. Residents said Israel bulldozed 13 houses. Israeli snipers took to rooftop lookouts and attack helicopters circled throughout the night. The military has said it might stay several days, and a Palestinian official said he feared the operation could lead to a reoccupation of the Gaza Strip.
| Good idea... Expensive, a pain in the ass, but a good idea... |
"We believe these are clear-cut crimes," said Palestinian Cabinet Minister chief lying windbag Saeb Erekat. "The Israeli government’s endgame is to destroy the peace process which we have already trampled to death and to resume full occupation."
Shoulda thought about that before you boomed the bus. But being a lemming Paleostinian, you can't see the two as connected... |
The raid was part of military activity in response to last weekend’s suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis in a restaurant in the port city of Haifa. Military officials, citing intelligence, said Palestinians might be planning to use the tunnels to bring in more advanced weapons, like anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons that could have a strategic impact on the three-year conflict.
| They might even think of this as being for their own good. Beats having the ground they're living on now plowed and sown with salt... |
Meanwhile, members of Israel’s opposition parties and Palestinian officials met Saturday for informal talks at an isolated resort on the Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea. The unofficial talks, which did not have the backing of the Israeli government, touched on ways to revive peace negotiations and end violence by Palestinian militants. Discussions were expected to culminate in a declaration urging militants for restraint and emphasizing that peace and Palestinian-Israeli cooperation is the only means to a stable Mideast.
Well, I keep "urging" my San Diego Chargers to win more games, and they aren’t doing it either - talk is cheap, and promises from losers don’t cut it |