Yasser Arafat

Your ``personal take`` Temp? You trying to be Woody Allen or something?

The checkered warrior with 9 lives may be at the bottom

of his nineth.

Success or failure he has led his people for as long as

most of us can remember.

It is very easy to comment on what could have been.

But in the trenches what choices warriors make are

a little different.

Whether Palestinians were offered peace or surrender

is for another time......

Yasser,

Those of us sympathetic to Palestine and the Israeli occupation have learned to live with contradictions for many years.

Arafat in Coma ``Between Life and Death``
Friday, November 5th, 2004

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/05/1521219
As conflicting reports emerge about the condition of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, we take a look at the implications of his death on the Middle East. We speak with Palestinian Stanford University professor Khalil Barhoum, Israeli professor Neve Gordon and we go to Ramallah to speak with Israeli journalist Amira Hass. [includes rush transcript]

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There are conflicting reports about the condition of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian envoy to France said this morning that Arafat is ``in a critical juncture between life and death.`` She said he is in a ``reversible coma`` and that ``he could or could not wake up.``
Reports remain sketchy after Israel`s Channel Two television reported Thursday that Arafat was brain dead. Doctors at the French military hospital where he is being held have denied the rumors.

Arafat was taken into intensive care on Wednesday but the exact nature of his illness remains unclear. Several reports from French and international media outlets say his condition is one of clinical death. An anonymous doctor told the Israeli newspaper Ha`aretz that Arafat was in a coma that he would not recover from. CNN has quoted U.S. officials as saying he is on a life support machine.

At a press conference yesterday, President Bush responded to reports that Arafat had died.


President Bush, press conference.

President Bush speaking at a press conference yesterday. For three decades, the 75-year-old leader has been the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel for a state. He has never appointed a successor and many are fearful his death could trigger a power vacuum and chaos. In the Occupied Territories, Palestinians were reportedly glued to radio and television broadcasts.
Palestinian officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah are said to be engaged in talks over a successor. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has reportedly been assigned some of Arafat`s powers, making him the effective head of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas, the former Palestinian prime minister, is reported to have taken over the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will allow Arafat to return to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah if he recovers. But he has made it clear he will not allow his old adversary to be buried on the Temple Mount - also known as the Haram al-Sharif - in occupied East Jerusalem.


Amira Hass, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haa`retz and one of Israel`s leading journalists. She has spent much of the last decade living in Palestinian communities of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. She joins us on the phone from Ramallah.
Khalil Barhoum, professor and coordinator of African and Middle Eastern languages and literatures at Stanford University. He is the president of Association of Arab-American University Graduates. He is a Palestinian who was born in Bethlehem.
Neve Gordon, Israeli professor at Ben Gurion University. He joins us on the phone from Berkeley.

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AMY GOODMAN: At a press conference Thursday, President Bush responded to reports that Arafat had died.

GEORGE W. BUSH: My second reaction is that we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that is at peace with Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: President Bush speaking at a news conference on Thursday. For three decades, the 75 year-old leader has been the symbol of Palestinian struggle against Israel for a state. He has never appointed a successor and many are fearful his death could trigger a power vacuum and chaos. In the occupied territories, Palestinians were reportedly glued to radio and TV broadcasts. Palestinian officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah are said to be engaged in talks over a successor. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, has reportedly been assigned some of Arafat`s powers, making him the effective head of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas, the former Palestinian Prime Minister, is reported to have taken over the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will allow Yasser Arafat to return to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah if he recovers, but he has made it clear he will not allow his adversary to be buried on the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif in occupied East Jerusalem. We first go to Ramallah to Amira Hass of Ha’aretz, the newspaper. Welcome to Democracy Now! Amira.

AMIRA HASS: Hello, hi.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what is happening now in Ramallah and what the latest news is of the condition of Yasser Arafat?

AMIRA HASS: Well, the latest news… I think that you cited the latest news. Just as you are, we`re all dependent on news which comes from Paris and sometimes these are conflicting news. But this is obvious that these are the last days of Yasser Arafat, as a leader, anyway. If he is going to make it or not, it`s for doctors to say. And I believe that Ramallah showed, during the last week, that it got healed very quickly to the absence of Arafat and you don`t see great manifestations of sorrow or grief of people missing him. It is not people are necessarily waiting for him to die, but Arafat has lost a lot of his credibility and popularity during the last years, during the Intifada, during the years of Oslo. So, people are not mourning him and people have discovered very quickly since he came to the occupied territories in terms of the Oslo agreement, that Arafat is mortal just like any other human being.

AMY GOODMAN: And right now, what kind of meetings are taking place? What kind of gatherings are taking place in Ramallah? This is the compound of Yasser Arafat.

AMIRA HASS: I believe that political forces, mainly around Fatah and the Palestinian government, or so-called Palestinian government, and the Palestinian security forces organizations are all meeting in order to, first to make sure that the institutions function well, that there are no clashes going on or will go on and that there are security people, enough security people to guarantee that there are no clashes between rivals. But this is really -- I mean, the last week has been quite quiet in the Palestinian internal arena. It`s not that – there have been Israeli attacks on Palestinians, but the Israeli prediction that Palestinians will start immediately when Arafat disappears, that they will turn their internal fight against each other has proven wrong. Hello?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes. We hear you fine.

AMIRA HASS: Yeah. So, still, of course, the main -- I think there is a lot of exaggeration to concentrate so much on Arafat and how it might influence the future because with Arafat or without Arafat, the main issue here is Israeli occupation and Israeli decision to continue with expansion of settlements and of colonies. This is the core issue and all the rest is some sort of footnote.

AMY GOODMAN: And the Prime Minister, General Ariel Sharon, saying that Yasser Arafat cannot be buried in Jerusalem. Does that anger people?

AMIRA HASS: You know, Palestinians are not allowed to go out of Gaza for studies, for medical treatment. Palestinian grandchildren cannot see their grandparents who live somewhere else in the occupied territories. I mean, to concentrate on this, of course he would not allow him. If he doesn`t allow -- if the Israeli authorities do not allow a woman with cancer to get out of Gaza -- so why would they allow somebody to be buried in Jerusalem? We concentrate all the time on the symbolic things and this has been one of the illnesses of the last 10, 12 years, that we replaced symbols to reality, to concrete steps and there was a Palestinian airport and everybody was so happy about the Palestinian airport and everybody forgot that after all it is the Israelis who give the permit or do not give the permit to leave the airport or not. And there are so many others who cannot even dream about getting to an airport because they wouldn`t even have the money to pay for the short drive between Gaza and Rafah. So, I feel that we -- that this talk is kind of a spin to discuss symbols and external things rather than the reality of occupation. And the question of how Palestinians resist or fail to resist this occupation.

AMY GOODMAN: We`re speaking with Amira Hass. She is an Israeli Jewish reporter for Ha’aretz, is the only one who has lived for years in the occupied territories from Gaza to the West Bank. She is speaking to us from Ramallah, which is home of the Yasser Arafat compound. In our studio here at Stanford University, we`re joined by Dr. Khalil Barhoum, he is Professor and Coordinator of African and Middle Eastern Languages at Stanford University, he is President of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates. He is a Palestinian who was born in Bethlehem. Welcome to Democracy Now!

KHALIL BARHOUM: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to right now the reports of Yasser Arafat somewhere between life and death, they say and what this means.

KHALIL BARHOUM: Well, Yasser Arafat has been on the Palestinian scene now for the past four decades and like him or not, he does represent the Palestinian symbol for resistance and the embodiment of Palestinian nationalism. Now his political legacy may be in doubt after his death, but his historical legacy, I think, will live on as a man who has dominated Palestinian politics and political and military struggle, if you wish, for the past four decades. The thing about the internal struggle among Palestinians, there are some Israelis who are predicting, I think, is overblown. That there was a scenario there may be some clashes between internal factions within Fatah, which is the leading movement in the P.L.O., which was started by Yasser Arafat. There is no question that there is a conflict right now between the older generation, the old guards represented by Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qureia, the are the two people who will be taking over from Arafat if and when he dies and the younger generation, the people who were born under Israeli occupation, or after 1967, and these people were represented mostly by figures like Marwan Barghouti, who is now serving in an Israeli jail, a life term. The other aspect to Palestinian maybe conflict, that some Israeli analysts have also been fearing and predicting is maybe a struggle between Fatah on the one hand and the other Palestinian factions, primarily Hamas and al Jihad Islam. My prediction is that -- I agree with Amira Hass. I think that all these predictions are -- they serve the Israeli interests and I honestly don`t think that the Palestinians will have anything approaching civil war. There will be a political struggle for the soul of the P.L.O. There is no question that Mahmoud Abbas does not have the same clout or leverage that Yasser Arafat has wielded within the P.L.O., nor does Ahmed Qureia, the current Prime Minister, have that kind of, you know, influence within the ranks of Fatah. But when everything is, you know, said and done, the P.L.O. has to move on and they have to put their house in order and Arafat will remain in my view, the tormenter of the Bush administration and Israelis even in death just like as he was in life. Because when he was still alive and very energetic, they declared him, you know, out of hand, irrelevant. Although they could not produce an alternative Palestinian leadership to this irrelevance of Arafat. Now after his death, the onus actually falls on the Israelis and the Americans to push the so-called peace process because now the obstacle to peace, Arafat, is removed. So, they have to produce something and I`m afraid that the people who are going to take over from Arafat, as I said, are not going to be as malleable as Arafat or as influential as Arafat in pushing any kind of peace agreement that the rank and file within the P.L.O. and within the Fatah movement are going to be happy with. Arafat had that clout. These people don`t. So, if the Israelis think that, you know, this impediment to peace is out of the way and now we can push some kind of half-hearted, you know, half-cooked peace settlement on the Palestinians and they have no choice but to take it. I think they`re very badly mistaken.

AMY GOODMAN: On CNN this morning, they were talking about Yasser Arafat having in banks something -- hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars and that a struggle is going on now, they were speculating between Suha, his wife, and the Palestinian authority over that money. What knowledge do you have, Dr. Barhoum of this? Is any of this true?

KHALIL BARHOUM: I have no access to these accounts. And I`m just being facetious here. I don`t think anyone in the P.L.O., other than Arafat had access to them. And that -- and therein lies the secret of his, I think, durability, that the fact that he bought political allegiance over the years with money. And no one had control over these bank accounts except Arafat, and this was actually a great concern among the Palestinians and the Palestinian leadership that if Arafat does not pass on these, you know, secrets to his finance minister, or the people who are going to be taking over within the P.L.O., the money may end up in, you know, in the Swiss banks for good. But these are the rumors. I`m not sure that anybody really has a grip on how much money, how many bank accounts, or whether this is actually the case.

AMY GOODMAN: And Neve Gordon is also on the line with us, Israeli professor at Ben-Gurian University from Berkeley. And very quickly, your response. Usually you are in Israel and now you`re here in California.

NEVE GORDON: Well, I think Israel now is at a juncture. I think Israel has created a myth in the past four years called the “null partner” myth, that there is no one to speak with on the other side. It has portrayed Arafat as a terrorist, as a corrupt person, and as an authoritarian ruler, and it has said that the peace process has collapsed because there is no one to talk with on the other side. And now that Arafat is going to pass away -- and I agree with a Mira Hass that the days are numbered -- Israel has to make a decision. It has to decide whether it wants to change its course and to address the real Palestinian claims, the Palestinian demands and grievances: Withdrawal to the 1967 borders, the establishment of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, the recognition of the rights of the Palestinian refugees, or whether it wants to create an alternative myth, a new myth, one that would again divert the public`s gaze from the real issues and enable Israel to continue expropriating Palestinian lands and destroying the population’s infrastructure of existence. Now I believe that Prime Minister Sharon will choose the latter option, and then the only question that now lies is what this new myth will be.

AMY GOODMAN: I`m going to give Professor Barhoum the last word as we move into this weekend.

KHALIL BARHOUM: I agree with both Neve and Amira. The occupation remains the real issue. Since the beginning of Palestinian struggle, the Israeli policy has been based or predicated on two, I think, pillars. One is the de-legitimization of Palestinian leadership, no matter which leadership emerges, and the second is the dehumanization of Palestinian people. And in the process, since 1967, what we`ve seen is a continuing and progressive kind of march towards the legitimatization and normalization of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The whole world now has come to realize that that`s really the crux of the problem in the Middle East. It remains to be seen whether the Bush administration follows suit. Whether they start realizing that and addressing it or whether they continue to fall behind Sharon, right-wing policies and Israel for the term, as long as Bush is President. And that would be a real catastrophe, not just for the Palestinians, but I -- I would dare say to the Israelis as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, professor Khalil Barhoum of Stanford University, thank you for joining us. Also President of the association of Arab-American University Graduates. Neve Gordon is Israeli professor from Ben-Gurion University speaking to us from Berkeley and Amira Hass in Ramallah right now of Ha’aretz newspaper.


www.democracynow.org

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PS: The last bit in my post was not about temporal whose article was mostly balanced in my view.... except the ``footnote`` issue...

Yasser:

#25 AND #15 cover the points you raised

rgds,

t

malik99:

..The footnote clearly says This is not a eulogy. Only my personal take on Yasser Arafat.

…i regret the anti-semitism remark and withdraw it…it should not be there.

…in this moment of sadness and grief eulogies are in order and we can read them all over…mine is a personal and a long term speculation…time and tide are indeed cruel task masters…

...i agree with you ... Arafat was not a perfect leader. But he was not sell out either. He may have been corrupt, and did not bother to groom a successor, but he sure carried the hopes and aspirations of the palestinian nation in his heart.

…even Hitler will become a footnote 1000 years from now. And so will Bonaparte and Churchill
...who knows what will happen in a thousand years……when nasser died there was an instant and tremendous outpouring of grief through out the arab world…folks crying, tearing off their clothes…today merely 34 years later he is a foot note in the saga…

…overall we are on the same page

rgds,

t

T..

Man is not important. Issue is. Let us disect, What man did.

Did he think he was above the....

Whom did he groomed as the next one. OR was he so insecure that some one will replace him.... in his life time to take the glory....

I always thought Palastine was an issue. Now I am not that sure. Actually even K is not a question/issue. It is glory. From both sides. FFFF the people involved.

Is the cause or the person important?????

With you I expect an answer. Very unlike me.

Thank you.

Yogiraj Patil

Mr. Temporal:

``Shatterd. Broken and helpless ...``

How do you know so much? Did you just visit his hospital bed ? He may have closed his eyes peacefully thinking he has done whatever he could and now he has to go ?

He is recognized as a leader and a hero by a vast majority of Arabs and you dont seem to mention any of the reasons for that.

You have refused to see the other side of the picture ? A few references from web sites and job done. If you can write and you are provided with a forum then you should write with some responsibility.

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......... i hope we don`t repeat arafat`s mistakes in kashmir .........

One of the reasons why I am increasingly sick of Chowk`s debates is this attitude that does not allow for reasonable debate. We can either demonize a person and all their actions or hero-worship them and all their actions... Yasser Arafat is a man of contradiction, just like most of us.... he does symbolize the Palestinian Nation... he, more than anyone else, made them a nation and in that sense he is the father of the Palestinian nation... and he more than anyone else is responsible for the indecisive impotence of the palestinian nation... when he rejected the Barak/Clinton offer in the US in 2000... Was he a terrorist ? Yes he was. Was he a freedom fighter? Hell yeah... was he a man of peace? Well according to the swedes he was, wasn`t he? An average leader, still Yasser Arafat was a GREAT SYMBOL for a great nation.

But a `footnote in the palestinian saga`... that is really very wrong. A man who led a nation for over 40 years, whether he was right or wrong, can hardly be a footnote... Yes ofcourse he made mistakes and he was at times infuriatingly wrong... and some of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority can be traced back to him... but there was a time when his status was comparable to that Cheguevera... seriously ... does the fact that Che was not a Muslim really make his terrorism different?

I think temporal is confused about the whole matter... yes Edward Said parted ways with PNC (as did Eqbal Ahmed who was also a member of the Palestinian National Council!!!) ... after the Oslo Accord.... but Edward Said did so because he felt that the deal in Oslo was a compromise where Palestinians were left with nothing... and let me also remind you... the Israelis wanted to negotiate with Arafat ... some how the Madrid Peace overtures in 1992 never did mean much to the Israelis... they could have marginalized Yasser Arafat then... but they didn`t.... why we will never know...

There was a time ... in the 1970s and the early 1980s... when a very famous poet from Pakistan saw Yasser Arafat as the greatest revolutionary and freedom fighter of the world... that famous poet was Faiz Ahmed Faiz.... such was the control over the imagination of the left oriented intellectuals, that 24 years ago communist Khala named me ``Yasser``... I suspect if Faiz had lived beyond Oslo, he too would have left...

But do you think Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmed, or Faiz would have ever accepted the options given to Yasser Arafat in 2000?? after rejecting Oslo? I remember in the immediate aftermath of the events of 2000.... listening to Edward Said`s interview with Charlie Rose... he thought that what had been offered to Arafat was nothing less than a betrayal of the Palestinian nation... Now Edward, Eqbal and Faiz ... all are dead... and soon their great symbol, but a marginal leader, will join them too...


The point, my dear chowk idiots, is simple: You people live in a world of absolute rights and wrongs.... the details and contours of humanity are totally and completely lost on you feeble minded, and stupid expats...


... the Other ``Yasser``

SAC...

About the Shaikh who died 3 days ago.... here is a little something from Najam Sethi... whose credibility as a realist is hardly questionable...:


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_5-11-2004_pg3_1

EDITORIAL: Sheikh Zayed’s impressive legacy

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan, the emir of Abu Dhabi, has passed away. May he rest in peace. He has left a legacy which needs to be emulated by rulers of Muslim countries throughout the Islamic world.

In 1970, Abu Dhabi was a little-known sheikhdom and had just embarked on a journey to stardom on the back of gushing oil revenues. But what sets Sheikh Zayed apart from many rulers in the Middle East was not just the oil boom and wealth that followed it, but his attempt to transform a simple, tribal society into a modern, federally structured entity. His biggest challenge, after he had made the transition from his brother Sheikh Shakhbut’s tribal rule to a more modern form of government, was to knit together a number of small sheikhdoms into a single entity as the United Arab Emirates. This was no easy task because the sheikhdoms he brought together in a federally operated system had a long history of feuding. Sheikh Zayed managed it through his impressive diplomatic skills and a vision that forms the core of his legacy.

His rule and his position as a monarch stands in sharp contrast to the republics in the Middle East: Egypt, Syria and, until recently, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It posits the interesting question of whether the UAE — and increasingly Qatar — should make the theoretical transition from monarchy to republicanism, a more modern stage of political development. Empirical evidence, however, suggests otherwise. The monarchies in the Gulf, led by Sheikh Zayed, have proved themselves to be more progressive and liberal than the oppressive republics with their one-man, one-party systems. While the Gulf states have sought to integrate with the world economically and financially, the Arab republics remain poor and suppressed. As one commentator has written: “Zayed proved something that conventional wisdom denies. It is that a traditional ruler with no modern Western education may well be better equipped to lead a traditional, conservative Arab society into the modern world” than his more educated counterparts.

Sheikh Zayed was pragmatic and benign and understood the exigencies of international politics. He knew what could, and could not, be done. By realising the ground realities and working out a strategy in relation to them, he managed, over three decades, to turn the UAE into the biggest hub of commercial activity in the world. Compare this with Pakistan’s efforts in relation to airport and port facilities in Karachi and elsewhere on the Mekran Coast. If anything, over the past three decades, international commercial traffic has moved away from this country to the UAE.

But his biggest contribution was building institutions rather then turning the UAE into a show by a single strongman at the helm. This is why, despite being a monarchy, the UAE has seen a smooth transition from Sheikh Zayed to his successor. Here, too, there is a lesson for us in Pakistan. States can be run by strongmen. But if they have to survive the passing away of one man, they have to be run according to an institutional script. *

temporal sahib you write ``do i detect just a little anti-semitism in you?``

I am glad temporal that your anti-semitism-o-meter jumps into action at the slightest indication on my part that Dennis Ross is of Jewish faith. It is a known and much talked about fact that many of the key negotiators on the US team had dual Israeli and US citizenships. Many of them had worked with various Israeli think tanks, and some of them had even served time in Israeli Defense Forces. To point that fact out is anti-semitism? When Israeli sources, such as the Haretz newspaper, have no reservation in pointing it out, don`t you think you are being holier than pope?

You write `` this is why in my humble opinion acceptance of that offer…that flawed offer... would have been in the long term and strategic interests of the palestinians``

temporal sahib, i never suggested that you are a member of zionist propaganda. But I do suggest that you are but one example of how an average person has been taken in by that propaganda. I believe that you made the about mentioned point about the rejection of a flawed peace offer after reading the accounts in your local newspaper, and watching sound bites on TV. But let me introduce you to the fact that EVEN isarelies had not accepted that offer. I know you are shocked to hear that. Let me elaborate.

First and perhaps most important, it is not correct to say that Israel accepted the Clinton parameters while the Palestinians rejected them. The Israeli cabinet voted to accept Clinton’s ideas (which were not a final agreement but rather a set of guidelines within which a final settlement would be reached), but Prime Minister Ehud Barak then sent Clinton a 20-page letter outlining Israel’s objections. Similarly, the Palestinian leadership also sent Clinton a detailed letter thanking him for his efforts and relating their own reservations. Both sides made clear that they wanted to continue to negotiate within that framework, but both also registered concerns. The claim that Israel accepted these terms while Arafat rejected them is a myth.

Temporal sahib, once again, Arafat was not a perfect leader. But he was not sell out either. He may have been corrupt, and did not bother to groom a successor, but he sure carried the hopes and aspirations of the palestinian nation in his heart.

And you sir, have done a disservice by writing a one sided article based on zionist propagated sound bites and calling Arafat ``a foot note``. Temporal sahib, even Hitler will become a footnote 1000 years from now. And so will Bonaparte and Churchill.

``The point, my dear chowk idiots, is simple: You people live in a world of absolute rights and wrongs.... the details and contours of humanity are totally and completely lost on you feeble minded, and stupid expats... ``.............. the Other ``Yasser``

........... i think the kid has a point

p.s the only thing worth reading on chowk nowdays are ferozek and ylh (aka manto) i-logs ...... the rest is all lufange baazi (to quote the marhoom ahmed madani)

1. No one will ever be a ``legitimate`` Palestinian leader to the Israelis.
2. Hamas apparently provides an infrastructure that the Israeli govt. has tried to destroy-by providing hospitals, schools, etc.
3. There is a schism between Palestinian intellectuals abroad and Palestinian leadership in Gaza/West Bank.
4. Arafat has apparently put away a lot of money-the whereabouts of he has not told anyone.