Daily Alert Archives

Abbas: Everybody's Second Choice

(New York Post) Amir Taheri - There is little doubt that Mahmoud Abbas will be elected as Palestinian chairman with a convincing majority. Yet Abbas will be everybody's second choice. The Arafatists want Abbas because they know he has no power base of his own - and may thus be bullied into adopting at least part of their agenda and preserving at least some of their ill-gained privileges. The democrats hope that Abbas will prepare the ground for genuine democratization - and thus allow them a greater hope of winning with a candidate of their own next time round. The "Wipe Israel Off the Map" groups see Abbas as a stopgap leader who could buy them time to strengthen their positions, especially in Gaza, before making their own bid for power. It would be foolish to assume that we are at the threshold of a golden age in the Middle East. Nor is it wise to assume that Arafat was the sole cause of the deadlock. The truth is that hostility among Palestinians to the very existence of Israel today is greater than 13 years ago, when the peace process was launched in Madrid. President Bush would be making a mistake by transforming the Israel-Palestine conflict into an American problem - because producing peace between protagonists that are not ready for it is not within the gift of any outsider.
2005-01-06 00:00:00
Full Article