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| Palestinian Authority Broke and In Disarray | |||
| 2004-03-01 | |||
| Three years and five months after Palestinians began their second uprising against Israel, the Palestinian Authority is broke, politically fractured, riddled with corruption, unable to provide security for its own people and seemingly unwilling to crack down on terrorist attacks against Israel, according to Palestinian, Israeli and international officials. The turmoil within the Palestinian Authority is fueling concern that the agency — created almost 10 years ago to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip — is disintegrating and could collapse, leaving a political and security vacuum in one of the Middle East’s most volatile regions. None of the analysts or officials interviewed said they believed a collapse was imminent, and many noted that the key players in the Middle East, including Israel, the United States, the European Union and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, have a strong interest in preventing the Palestinian Authority’s demise. However, most agreed that the key issue affecting its survival is a lack of money, and they noted that even on the verge of bankruptcy, the authority has not imposed many of the reforms that frustrated donors are demanding. Arafat and Qureia reportedly are at loggerheads over security and financial reforms -- the same issues that led to the resignation of the first Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, after 130 days in office. Edward G. Abington, a former State Department official who is now a Washington consultant to the Palestinian Authority, said he told Arafat during a meeting at the Palestinian leader’s bombed-out compound here recently that the governing body was in danger of collapse. "Let it collapse," Arafat said, according to Abington. "It will be the fault of Israel and the Americans."
Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, a critical decision-making body, met last week for the first time in three years. The meeting reportedly erupted into shouting matches several times over Arafat’s failure to control the growing lawlessness on the streets of Palestinian cities and his refusal to hold internal party elections, which many members say believe would give younger Palestinians a greater voice in Fatah. Some Palestinians have begun arguing that the Palestinian Authority should dissolve itself, saying that such a move would force Israel to assume the full burden of its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "I think the Palestinian Authority should push the button" and disband itself, said Ali Jerbawi, a political science professor at Ramallah’s Birzeit University. The authority has no political strategy for combating the Israelis, Jerbawi said, and dissolving itself could help it regain the initiative by forcing Israel to "bear the consequences" of occupation.
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| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #15 Think about it before you ditch me" Its the natural last strategy for YA. Second to last strategy, LH. The last is, as the PA falls, Arafat's jet lands in Paris. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-3-1 9:03:23 PM |
| #14 or D. Let the PA split into a number of different factions and play them off against each other, never letting one gain true dominance. WRT A., Counter-battery fires are never enough. (And you're right, they'll never work. You could remotely fire some 122mm rockets from a playground or use shoot and scoot tactics with a mortar in the back of a pick up. You'll never get the bad guys and you will kill lots of civilians.) Constant armed sorties and raids into the occupied territories will be a necessity after the wall is up. The only defense that works is an active defense. The Israelis learned that on the Bar Lev line, I'm sure. An obstacle is just an anchor point. If you never come out from behind it, your enemy will eventually find a way to defeat it or use it against you. The other, political reason that the Israelis want to keep a presence in the occupied territories, is that they never want the Pals to establish true sovereignty. That was their big mistake in southern Lebanon. If they had reserved the right to make incursions at will, then their problems on the northern border would have been much more manageable while keeping casualties to a minimum. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-3-1 3:07:33 PM |
| #13 This is not as stupid as you make it out - its actually strategy on Yassers part - the audience is not the locals this time, its US and Israel. "You do things that weaken me to much, and im gonna pack it in, and take the PA down with me. Then you'll get chaos, and you WONT like it - you'll get Hamas, Hezbollah, whoever. Who will fire rockets over the border, and do other nasty things. Think about it before you ditch me" Its the natural last strategy for YA. Counters are to have a PLAN of some kind - plan could take several forms A. We can live with chaos, cause we're gonna quickly finish the wall and have capability for efficient counter battery fire against firing across wall (do they? evidence from Lebanon border suggests not) B. We think we the younger Fatah types and others will keep PA going without Yasser. (Hard to outmanipulate Yasser in PA politics, but maybe US and Israel intel know things I dont - especially about recent "debates" in Fatah C. We have someone lined up to win a Pal civil war - probably Mo Dahlan. Yeah it will be messy for a while, and some rockets will come over the wall, but Dahlan will kill off plenty of Hamas ground troops in his march to power. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-3-1 2:48:28 PM |
| #12 Mojo---off topic, but like your email address... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-3-1 2:40:09 PM |
| #11 Yassir forgot the first law of war: don't start what you can't finish. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2004-3-1 12:35:40 PM |
| #10 Fine, let the bastards fight it out amongst themselves. Then shoot the winners. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-3-1 12:28:33 PM |
| #9 ..seemingly unwilling to crack down on terrorist attacks against Israel, Seemingly? haaahahahaha.....HAAAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!! These guys at the Post got any more laughers? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-3-1 11:42:57 AM |
| #8 Have to chime in again guys: The speech of a real leader, paraphrased: "My country is splitting at the middle. I have to use my office and authority to preserve the Union, that this nation, under God... shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln knew that it was his watch, and he wasn't going to let down the nation on his watch. The speech of a cretinous, self-interested "leader", verbatim: "Let it collapse, It will be the fault of Israel and the Americans." ... pathetic. |
| Posted by: Dripping sarcasm 2004-3-1 11:35:02 AM |
| #7 Well, the Evil Plan™ is working. The Arafish tank is almost drained and the bubbler is wheezing. Pretty soon it will be flopping time for the 'fish. Wonder how Suha will be doing with the French money laundering investigation? If she kept a low profile, everything would be cool. But embarassing the French govt was a dumb thing to do. The Arafish and Mrs. Fish, what a couple! What an example for Paleos to look up to and die for! Pathetic. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-3-1 11:24:53 AM |
| #6 "Let it collapse," Arafat said, according to Abington. "It will be the fault of Israel and the Americans." The authority has no political strategy for combating the Israelis, Jerbawi said, and dissolving itself could help it regain the initiative by forcing Israel to "bear the consequences" of occupation. "Nothing's our fault!" "It's the Joooos!" "Inshallah!" (if it's allah's will). Blame is this society's only export. There is nothing of substance, nothing of quality that it produces. The LAST thing they want, and need, is their own country. They've spent generations doing nothing but tearing down and destroying, and haven't got a clue as to how to build anything. There is NO WAY they can succeed with a "Palestine." I think that goes a long way in explaining why arafat has not done anything to truly create a palestinian state -- he knows it would fail miserably. And he'd rather be the hero of a terrorist movement than a failed leader of a miserable plot of dirt called palestine. |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2004-3-1 10:15:47 AM |
| #5 You dont think for a miniute that Arafish, his Fatah group, or Hamas or any of the other groups give a rats ass about the average Palistinian person do you? Didn't think so... The sooner the wall is built the sooner these assholes can kill each other off. Then the Palistinians might have a chance at peace. In the meantime buy stock in popcorn and beer companies... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-1 10:07:02 AM |
| #4 Wonder how long it will take the American Left to cry out that we must provide more aid to the Palestinians and that failure to do so is cruel and oppressive. |
| Posted by: Highlander 2004-3-1 10:04:10 AM |
| #3 "U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials say they fear a collapse of the Palestinian Authority could result in a violent power struggle among remnants of Palestinian security agencies, crime bosses, Islamic militants and others" fear it? I'm counting on it. Pass the popcorn |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-1 9:54:09 AM |
| #2 Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, a critical decision-making body... Yes, as in, "Hey guys, it's been a while. Let's decide to put more Jewish bus riders in critical condition" I guess it's Israel's fault that Arafat has now been acknowledged by even the selectively blind EU, to have embezzeled, or just lost, millions and millions of euros. "Let it collapse," Arafat said, according to Abington. "It will be the fault of Israel and the Americans." Funny, back when he was the bold young leader of the PLO, I don't remember him giving the credit of building the organization to Israel or the U.S. . But now he's basically saying that it was someone elses responsibilty to support his murderous evil government. ..."I think the Palestinian Authority should push the button" and disband itself, said Ali Jerbawi, a political science professor at Ramallah’s Birzeit University. What a curious statement. Kind of like homicide bomber mentality - I'm going to make Israel miserable by blowing myself up or in terms more familiar to normal society, a temper tantrum. "boo hoo! my life sucks because Mommy and Daddy won't buy me an ice cream cone! I think I'll just make them pay by publically screaming and thrashing until they have to give in and bribe me to be quiet. No, of course it never occured to me to control my urge to pig out, or better yet, become a mature person who can obtain his own ice cream cone through proper means." I ache for the suffering that Israel has had to endure, being handcuffed to the PA all these years, especially in these violent death throes. However, the PA has been a cancer upon the world and it's good to see it revealed as just that, a cancer and nothing more. It produced nothing of it's own, and only lives by consuming what's fed to it in appeasement then spewing out death, evil and contagion. finally choked of it's outside resouces, it's doing exactly what a cancer would do - consuming itself. When President Bush spoke after 9/11, he spoke of a global war against terror, causing the terrorist organizations to even turn against themselves. Although he was speaking more directly at the moment about al quaeda, three years later, look at the taliban, look at Saddam's regime, look at Quaddafi, and look at the pathetic condition that Arafat is now in. Contrast the current conditions to those during the previous administrations' 8 years. He may not be perfect by a long shot, but G-d bless President George W. Bush, may he keep on keepin' on! |
| Posted by: Dripping sarcasm 2004-3-1 6:15:24 AM |
| #1 Bleh, cry me a friggin river. |
| Posted by: Valentine 2004-3-1 5:04:24 AM |