The draft outline platform calls for such peaceful features as "limited" violence directed against Israeli towns on the wrong side of that ancient artifact from the 1949 truce, the "Green Line," as well as the so-called "wall." The wording of the platform rules out any compromise, or even recognition of Israel--at least as a Jewish state.
The platform--and at least some Fatah leaders such as the worthy in East Jerusalem, Hatem 'Abd Al-Qadar-- demands a "strategic alliance" with Iran. Yep, that would sure be a giant step toward a peace between Arabs and Israel.
While the Likud firebrand and current Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is over the edge calling the outline draft platform "a declaration of war," the document is neither a roadmap to peace nor a open hand for President Obama. The Men of Fatah seem bound and determined to at least equal the Saudi ForMin in sheer cussedness.
Only by outdoing the Islamist jihadists of Hamas do the Fatahites believe they can overcome both the generation gap and the odor of graft, corruption, impurity, and impiety which clog the noses of so many Palestinans. Only by outdoing the Islamist jihadists of Hamas will it be possible to reclaim the premier status Fatah enjoyed way back when ole Yasser stood at the podium at the UN General Assembly with a pistol on his hip.
Only by outdoing the Islamist jihadists of Hamas will Fatah emerge from the shadows and dominate the lackluster Palestinian Authority and successfully challenge Hamas for the status of capo. Perhaps this is why Mohammed Ghneim has returned after forty years in exile. His return is intended to have two results.
His lesser intention is to boost Mohammed Abbas who has been attacked by another alte kampfer, Farouk Kaddoumi, who accused Abbas of having poisoned Arafat. Sure is a whole lot of brotherly love and good vibes in Fatah, isn't there?
Ghneim's second goal is getting himself elected jefe grande. He sees himself as the anointed, pure successor of Arafat.
Ghneim is an intransigent. That is why he stayed in exile for nearly twenty years after Arafat returned to the West Bank. He had vowed to return only to a "Palestinian state." Now he intends to take the reins of a newly revitalised, again quite militant Fatah and outpoint Hamas so that unity again exists. This, plus a harder hard-line against Israel will make Fatah the single player bringing an (expanded) Palestinian Authority into existence.
None of these developments any more than Hamas' continued bitter opposition to Fatah can give any encouragement to any diplomatic types who vest hope for peace in the upcoming conflab. Nor can a certain Nice Young Man From Chicago currently occupying the Oval Office take any comfort in the launching of Fatah 3.0.
The aging Ghneim is a revolutionary. He still is what Arafat once was many, many years ago, a committed revolutionary coveting a totalistic goal. He is not a statesman in the making. No. The old man of Fatah knows this is his last grasp at the big gold ring. With the help of younger, more radical members of Fatah as well as those whose grudge load against the current PA and Hamas is heavy, he may claim the top job. Then the Mideast will be in for a load more of bloodshed.
After a brief flirtation with a sort of Thermidor, Fatah and the PA is poised for another round of co-option to the left, to the extreme, to more blood and gore. This is a very unpleasant prospect to contemplate. But, it is one on which a grip must be taken.
One might ask if the Obama administration, particularly the President and SecState are up to getting a firm hold on a prickly potential. One might be forgiven for dreading the response.
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