Well, well, well…
I hate to say it as a supporter of the Oslo process, but the cat is out of the bag. The Palestinians were lying all the way and did not put forth efforts toward peace in good faith.
Among the heirs to Arafat’s various leadership positions, Farouk Kaddoumi has been officially named the new head of Fatah (for some of their revolutionary diatribe, here is their “constitution” ).
Fatah has been headed by Arafat since the 50s (it was founded in 1957) and has been responsible for probably as many terror attacks upon Israelis and international targets as all the other Palestinian terror groups combined. They have been committing attacks even after Oslo and after Camp David II.
Internationally, however, they’ve gotten a pass in the last decade because they are affiliated with the PLO, also headed by Arafat, which was the organization considered by the world to be the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people until it evolved into the Palestinian Authority, although the PLO and Fatah remain intact as organizations. Thank Arafat for the purposeful obfuscation.
So anyway, the world made a big deal of the fact that in 1988 the PLO agreed to accept Israel’s existence, and as part of the Oslo process, the Palestinians promised to change the parts of their Charter calling for the destruction of Israel. They went into closed door sessions in 1996 and voted 3 times behind those very closed doors to change the Charter. They never revealed to the world what changes were made specifically, but gave political, dimplomatic and informational assurances that they had abrogated the clauses calling for Israel’s destruction.
Farouk Kaddoumi has remained the “Foreign Minister” of Fatah and the PLO all these years, and actually never left Tunis to move into the Territories like so many of his colleagues in murder and lies. He has also been a staunch and vocal opponent of the Oslo process, and has said that he believes in the armed struggle to defeat Israel. He also admitted, a few months ago, that the Palestinians were scamming all along and the PLO charter was never really changed in those closed door meetings.
This is the man who Arafat, on his deathbed, has appointed as his successor at Fatah. Today, Kaddoumi has already stated publicly that “I`m open to peace talks, but ready to pursue armed struggle.” Uh huh.
So folks, what we’ve learned in the past 4 years is that the Palestinians lied to us and their intentions never changed. Their true face has now come out, and of all people to take over for Arafat, they’ve chosen one of their true hard-liners. Am I surprised? No. Am I disappointed? Yes. In them, but also in myself and people like me who hoped. Damn, those spots never change.
Come on TM, it didn’t really take you this long to realize that “The Palestinians were lying all the way and did not put forth efforts toward peace in good faith.” That’s been painfully obvious for years already.
Correct. I figured it out around the year 2000 after Camp David II.
However, this is now pretty clear evidence whereas before we couldn’t know because Arafat never explicitly said that the armed struggle will continue- he just made it continue.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Truthfully i haven’t been all that excited about Arafat’s death, cause I never though it would really make that much difference. It’s not like the rest of them have always been pure and peace-seeking and Arafat was the one bad apple and now that he’s gone, the whole ideology of the PA is suddenly going to change.
He was a very shrewd and tough individual who always managed to see the big picture but understood how to manipulate the minutae as well. It’s better without him around.
While this is definitely not good news, if you want to put a positive spin on it, the advantage is that Kaddoumi is heading up only Fatah. The other positions that arafat held, (at PLO, at PA, Minister of Embezzlement, etc.) are now held by some of the “Moderates”. It is clear that there will be a power struggle for some time, but I’m hoping (perhaps naively) that they merely become, effectively, different political parties and that the ones that will eventually get the support of most of “the Street” will be those who want peace.
I don’t think those who follow him will have the same potential to make peace that he did because they will have a more difficult time compromising. I don’t think Abu Ala or Abu Maazen have the reputations, for example, that would allow them to negotiate away most of the “right of return” in the way it was being framed at Camp David and Taba.
I don´t think abu alla or abu mazen have the ability to make any changes but at least with Arafat gone there is hope. There is one thing I´m sure of , as long as Arafat was alive there would never be peace. Now that he´s dead, at least I have hope of change. It might take 20 years, but at least there is hope.
It is painfully obvious that the palestinians were lying all along. Just check out their anthems, their school books and even the symbolism in Arafat´s dressing. They all elluded to the “whole land of palestine”. They don´t want peace, they Israel to cease existing.
The Palestinian population is growing faster than the Jewish population, so Jews will become a minority in Israel & West Bank etc., within 20 years. Therefore it’s up to us to promote Judaism worldwide (mainly in the 3rd world) before we run out of time.