Trouble in Arafatistan

[Mediocrates]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1025787715031


300 Palistinians protest in Hebron against the dismissal of Jibril Rajoub.

[cerulean]

Palestinian security agents angry about threat to withhold 4,000 salaries
By MOHAMMED NAJIB
Palestinian Interior Minister Abdul Razek Yehiya has frozen the salaries of 4,000 Preventive Security Apparatus employees, Palestinian sources said.
...
"This is a very dangerous step and we intend to destroy and take over all Palestinian institutions if we do not get our salaries today," the officer said. ...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1025787832143

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It's always important in a brutal dictatorship to keep the military and security forces happy, but Arafat seems to be missing the importance of this basic maxim.

The PA certainly has access to sufficient funds if Arafat agreed:
http://www.israelforum.com/board/sho...&threadid=1146

[ibrodsky]

They think they are winning, because even now they see Israel willing and eager to relieve restrictions and slowly get back to some sort of negotiations.

The Palestinians are crying out. They are saying, in effect, "Beat us without mercy." Only when they see Israel is so mad that she has launched a campaign to totally crush terrorist groups will the Palestinians begin to understand that they have lost.

I think if President Bush were to announce that the PA is a terrorist entity that must be defeated it would help immensely. It is amazing that the U.S. is still dealing with all sorts of western leaders who think Arafat is still relevant. They need to be either shamed or intimidated into dropping their foolish love affair with the Father of Modern Terrorism.

In fact, I think the US should publicly label Arafat the Father of Modern Terrorism. Can anyone deny this is what he is?

[cerulean]

Originally posted by ibrodsky
I think if President Bush were to announce that the PA is a terrorist entity that must be defeated it would help immensely. It is amazing that the U.S. is still dealing with all sorts of western leaders who think Arafat is still relevant. They need to be either shamed or intimidated into dropping their foolish love affair with the Father of Modern Terrorism.

In fact, I think the US should publicly label Arafat the Father of Modern Terrorism. Can anyone deny this is what he is?

Supposedly the US, EU, UN, and Russia have privately agreed that publicly saying that Arafat is an obstacle to peace will make him more powerful, based on the following article.

However, Bush did not hesitate to name some other entities as terrorist groups, even if doing so risked giving them the cachet of being labeled an enemy of the US. Would the US make the Arab world (and maybe even Europe) love Arafat more if they gave him the title "Father of Modern Terrorism?"

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Jul. 19, 2002
Arabs withhold support for Arafat
By JANINE ZACHARIA
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1025787841404

[Mediocrates]

Well there is that "Hey! We're finally important enough to be hated and hunted down!!!" going on.

[cerulean]

http://www.detroitnews.com/2002/nati...a04-542345.htm

Palestinian anger builds over leaders' alleged corruption
Officials are afraid full rebellion may erupt

By Mary Curtius / Los Angeles Times
JERICHO, West Bank -- Tucked away on a quiet side street, the sand-colored mansion built two years ago by Ahmed Korei, speaker of the Palestinian legislature, was meant to be a haven for the busy politician.
Instead, the 12-room home -- with its swimming pool, lush landscaping, privacy wall and guard tower -- became an embarrassing liability. Why, Palestinians began to ask publicly, were senior officials living in luxury while the continuing fight with Israel drove their people deeper into poverty?
...
Palestinians, Abu Amr said, are fed up with seeing "an official whose salary is $1,000 a month who buys property worth millions. There was a lot of stealing, extortion, bribery."
[...]
Nabil Amr, the former minister for parliamentary affairs who quit the Cabinet in April, said he left because he was disgusted by the conduct of senior officials.
"The Palestinian Authority made the mistake of distributing jobs as though they were royalties," Amr said. "Everyone from Fatah, everyone who had someone in their family who spent time in Israeli jails or who was martyred demanded jobs. And anyone who did not get a job began to talk about corruption."
...

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Some more info about Palestinian officials' luxury homes here:
http://www.israelforum.com/board/sho...3778#post13778

Some more info about the billions Arafat has stashed away:
http://www.israelforum.com/board/sho...6537#post16537