The daily situation text is written by Robert Rosenberg
Paintings by Silvia Rosenberg

Photos by BauBau

What next?

Friday, November 05, 2004

By Robert Rosenberg

He preferred the life of a revolutionary over more mundane matters like building an economy; he preferred the trappings of the power of a state – several security services, a helicopter, plane and stamps, over keeping the ranks of his government corruption-free.

He lived personally spartanly, like all good revolutionaries, but reportedly controlled hundreds of millions of dollars in secret bank accounts. Arafat gave the impression for years that the PLO, indeed Palestinian leadership, was all about terror and/or freedom fighting, whatever you prefer to call it. He never gave up his military mufti, and seemed to prefer a good fight than to arrange for school or sewage systems.

He liked the role he played when he was first spotted by the West after the Six Day War, with crazed Japanese and European urban revolutionaries from the West and soldiers on assignment from the Eastern bloc countries along with barely a handful of Palestinians who actually believed it might be possible to make their cause known to the world.

Stubbled and sunglassed, with the same semi-crazed grin worn by any punk gangleader shorter than his muscle, Arafat never grew up from the time he built the myth of his escape in 1968 away from Israeli troops, on a motorcycle racing away from Karameh, where the vaunted IDF, which had gone down in history less than a year earlier was trying to capture the nascent PLO, all 2,000 of the ragtag group hiding out just over the Jordan River across from Jericho.

But IDF intelligence was not very smart or the armored corps was very certain of itself, because the armor sank into mud-marshy plains east of the river in Mid-March, tipping off both the guerrillas and the nearby Jordanian army to the raid. Some 70 Israeli soldiers lost their lives in the botched operation, which not only failed to wipe out the PLO, made Arafat into a hero for the Palestinians and an international media star – especially when soon afterward, hijacking Western airlines became as much a PLO trademark as Arafat's keffiyeh, if not more so.

Arafat was the perpetual teenager was always ready to lie baldfaced for the sake of a principle that to him at least seemed larger than the significance of him being caught out in a lie. Regrettably, those closest to him as he lay dying behind closed doors, and other followers among the Palestinians worried about their cause or career, tried too hard to put a good face on the situation and it led to, well, prevarications might be the best word.

But even the broken telephone talk around and about his medical condition could be almost forgiven, since it was about Arafat, who made his entire career out of keeping everyone around him on their toes about his intentions.

Yet it was certainly not auspicious for the Palestinians that so many versions of his condition popped up in the media. Far more auspicious was the way PLO Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas, the first and former Palestinian prime minister, who saw Arafat with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei just before the rais flew off to meet his maker, immediately coordinated not only with Qurei and security strongmen Mohammed Dahlan of Gaza and Jibril Rajoub of the West Bank, but also with all the faction heads, including Khaled Mashal of the Hamas.

Indeed, since Arafat flew off, except for some isolated incidents, including a horrifying suicide attack by a 16-year-old in the heart of Tel Aviv, and a terrible explosion in Gaza that killed two children, there has been a dramatic lull in Palestinian violence. The PLO executive, headed by Abbas, has since given Qurei’ responsibility over all the security forces of the Palestinian Authority as well command of the PA’s finances, in coordination with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad. The institutions are at work. The reforms demanded by the Israelis, Americans, Europeans, Egyptians, and Jordanians, are taking place without fanfare, but so far in a smooth transition that places the next two old men of Palestyinian politics, Abbas and Qurei, also known as Abu Mazin and Abu Ala, respectively in their proper place, in charge.

Practically the entire leadership of the Palestinian people that emerged over the last 20 years in particular, has been steeped in state-building training from institutions ranging from the EU to the CIA. In the end, it was Arafat himself, who became the last great obstacle to statehood because he was unable or unwilling to face the simple fact that there can be only one legitimate armed force in any country that wants to function as part of the family of nations. By not ordering his security forces to disarm all the paramilitary, guerrilla, terror cells of the various political parties, he betrayed his own people and made it impossible to do business with him.

Yes, the Israelis were against Palestinian statehood, so obviously were enormous obstacles to Palestinian statehood. But that excuse began to wear thin by the late 1980s, when the Iron Curtain fell, and certainly by the First Gulf War, when absurdly Arafat sided with Saddam Hussein, who later paid the families of Palestinian shahids $25,000 a piece, up to the day the Second Gulf War began.

And four years ago, the Palestinians’ greatest enemy, Ariel Sharon said something no Israeli prime minister, not even Yitzhak Rabin or Shimon Peres, had ever said before while serving as prime minister: “Israel is ready to give the Palestinians what nobody has ever offered them before, a state of their own,” Sharon said at a teachers' convention. His only condition for resuming negotiations was that Arafat unify all his security services under one command, and then order that new security force to disarm the rogue groups. Arafat refused and Israel and the Palestinians fought on. Internally, Arafat also opposed elections, arguing that it would be impossible to arrange because of the Israeli violence. But it was also because it is obvious to all impartial observers that the Palestinian political arena needs to be shaken up with elections. The Fateh Party has not voted for its central committee leadership in two decades.

Thus, with the revolutionary Arafat out of the way, the Palestinian state should be able to emerge far more politically mature than it was allowed to behave under him. Elections are likely to be the main Palestinian effort. Fares Qadura, Sari Nusseibeh, Mohammed Dahlan, Hanan Ashrawi, and many others have said so.

There will be many predictions of anger at Israelis at the street level. Maybe. But just as likely is what Abbas originally promised, thinking he could persuade Arafat, and failing to do so as long as Arafat was alive: political stability and a combination of demanding national responsibility from all the factions (and those who don't take part will be ostracized, and if necessary, physically restrained), through more democracy for the Palestinians, with diligent efforts to find compromise with Israel, according to the international roadmap. There is no way America or Europe can deny that, and broad strata of Israeli society will welcome that. The question is whether George W. Bush will be sensitive enough to that possibility after claiming it is what he wants from the entire Arab world, and if Sharon what the U.S. now expects from Israel. In any case, without Arafat to blame as the demon, Israelis will be far more amenable to making peace with the Palestinians.

You're reading 'The Situation' Monday-Friday mid-day reports from Israel by Robert Rosenberg The text on the Ariga Home Page changes Monday-Friday, around 2 P.M. Tel Aviv time (GMT+2, EST+7, PST+10). Photo of the Day, courtesy of BauBau changes on average once every 12 hours Paintings by Silvia Rosenberg (unless otherwise noted) change weekly.

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