Daily Alert Archives

Arafat's Baggage

(International Herald Tribune) Mark Heller - On Jan. 10, the airwaves and editorial columns will be filled with commentary beginning, "Now that Mahmoud Abbas has been elected chairman of the Palestinian Authority, the onus is on Israel to...." The only logical link between these two developments can be the assumption that Abbas's election, ipso facto, means not only the replacement of Arafat, but also the displacement of Arafatism from Palestinian politics. Abbas's election may, indeed, lead to the end of arbitrary and corrupt rule, of the culture of hate in government media and public discourse, and of the encouragement, financing, and arming of terrorists by an elected leader. But none of that will yet be apparent the day after the election. Electoral considerations, that is, public opinion, have now forced Abbas to campaign not as the "un-Arafat" but as Arafat's protege. His need to resort to this kind of terminology is not an encouraging indicator of what Palestinian political traffic will bear after the election.
2005-01-07 00:00:00
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