Mission accomplished: Barghouti is bullied out of Palestinian elections
December 13, 2004
On Tuesday, I spoke on a panel here in London at Westminster (House of Commons) to an audience of MPs and various people involved with them, to talk about the situation in Palestine after Arafat. I meant to post some of my comments, but in view of today’s news about Marwan Barghouti’s withdrawal from the presidential race, I will quote only this: "does the talk about new opportunities after Arafat’s death mean that under a new leader, Palestinians will become more flexible than international law itself, and agree to concede more rights? If this is how it is meant, then the obsession with getting Mahmoud Abbas in power makes sense."
The harassment of Barghouti by the PLO and the various international endorsements of Abbas (from Mubarak to Powell) have given fruit, although one wonders what kind of “pressure” was put on Marwan Barghouti to withdraw from what was supposed to be a free and fair presidential election.
The US (and obviously Israel) must be delighted that Abbas now looks nearly certain to win the election – unless a majority of Palestinians realize that the other Barghouthi, Mustafa, is the more honest, dedicated and competent one of the two top remaining candidates.
Even before grabbing the presidency, Abbas is already carrying out demands that befit a man of his “moderation.” In Kuwait, Abbas officially apologized for the PLO’s moral support of Saddam Hussein when he invaded the country.
That’s admirable. Hopefully, the Kuwaitis will also now apologize to the whole Palestinian nation as well, for having so shamefully treated them since 1991, expelling nearly half a million blameless Palestinians with nowhere else to go.
Far from that; some Kuwaitis are not even pleased with this apology, saying Abbas only gave it to get political and financial support. The editor-in-chief of Al Watan has new concerns: “My fear and the fear of many Kuwaitis is that Palestinians would return to settle in Kuwait. Palestinians bring with them their political illnesses and they come to stay.”
Not if they had their own state, they wouldn’t – which is all the more reason for Kuwait and other countries to help them achieve that dream. But is Abbas the one who can fulfill that dream?
