Palestinian elections-2

Marwan Barghouthi as the Palestinians’ Mandela? It has always been
a possibility. And it is one that, despite the Fateh Revolutionary
Council’s recent decision to back Abu Mazen as the movement’s candidate in
the upcoming PA elections, is still being actively considered by many
in the upper echelons of Fateh.

I imagine that in the first instance that would be “Mandela, the representative
of all the nationalist prisoners, whose release becomes an international
cause célèbre“, rather than “Mandela, the wily political
prisoner who manages to negotiate a far-reaching political deal with his
captors, while always keeping within the discipline of his movement”… Though
that other step may come later, God willing.

Except for this: remember just how many years Mandela had to be in jail (28),
before he reached his deal with De Klerk… By that standard, it would
be another 23 years or so till the Palestinians and Israelis reached their
deal. A depressing thought, altogether.

Anyway, this prospect of Fateh launching a broad campaign to focus on “Free
Barghouthi”, echoing the “Free Mandela” movement in which so many of us participated
back in the 1970s and 1980s, is just one of the things I learned about by
reading this
article, from Saida Hamad in East Jerusalem, in the online version of
Hayat today. I even, as an exercize in my Arabic-language reading
skills, wrote out a complete translation of the piece in English…

(Why is this happening? We were planning to be on our way to Teheran
today. But the Iranian visas didn’t come through until just after the
departure of the flight we were supposed to be leaving Beirut on. There’s
a possibility we can get another flight, Tuesday. Meantime, I don’t
want to be sitting here in our apartment in Beirut twiddling my thumbs…)

So anyway, the four most interesting things in Hamad’s piece were these:

1. The info about the possible “Free Barghouthi” campaign. As you
   can see from the translation I provided, the “old guard” guys in Fateh reportedly
   promised this to Marwan as part of the quid pro quo they offered
   him in return for him agreeing not only not stand against Abu Mazen in the
   January elections, but also (gulp), actually to support him… The other
   parts of the quid pro quo were: (a ) A commitment to hold the 16th
   meeting of Fateh’s policymaking General Conference no later than August,
   so that both the Central Committee and (I assume) the Revolutionary Council
   can be renewed there through democratic means… (In contrast to much past
   practice.) Plus (b) the possibility that in connection with the “Free
   Barghouthi” campaign, Abu Mazen would name Marwan as his “Vice Presidential”
   candidate in the PA election…So far, it looks as though Marwan drove a
   pretty hard bargain…

1. Continuing evidence of the internal decay inside Fateh. This,
   from the reporting that the first thing Abu Mazen needed to do after getting
   “nomionated” by Fateh was actually to try to win the wholehearted support
   of Fateh’s people themselves for his candidacy. Having Marwan on the
   ticket as a “Vice Presidential” might well help his chances. I have
   to say I have no knowledge of the PA structure allowing for a “Vice President”
   at all. So it will be interesting indeed to see whether the Israelis
   and Americans will allow the PA to print up ballots with space for that…
2. Some info about Hamas’s position. Hamad says Hamas will come
   out with its “final position” on the elections sometime in the coming week,
   and it could be anything “from a boycott to supporting an independent candidate.”
   She also mentioned the possibility that they might “not oppose” Abu
   Mazen, in return for a promise that he’d hold general (i.e., I think, parliamentary)
   elections before May 15th. That latter idea– of Hamas insisting on
   the holding of both parliamentary and municipal elections within a strict
   timetable– has been mentioned before. I note that in pursuing this strategy
   of focusing on and participating in parliamentary and municipal elections
   while abstaining from participation in national-leadership elections, Hamas
   would be acting in line with the practice followed by Hizbullah here in Lebanon
   to great effect. For Hizbullah, it has really allowed them to consolidate
   their political base, act as a powerful political force in society, and improve
   the quality of governance at several levels– while avoiding the need to
   participate in the very “messy” compromises involved in exercizing national
   leadership.
3. That Mustafa Barghouthi, cousin of Marwan and one of the leaders of
   the very effective “Medical Relief Committees” in the West Bank, will on
   Monday be announcing his candidacy as the nominee of the leftist coalition
   the “Palestinian National Initiative”. He will be doing this during
   a 3-way videoconference in which while he participates from Ramallah, Dr.
   Haidar Abdel-Shafei will participate from Gaza and Ibrahim Dakkak, a distinguished
   engineer and city planner, will participate from occupied Jerusalem./ What
   a great idea! I hope the event works out well for them.

Maybe just sitting here and doing some close translation work is good for
me. I don’t know. I’d rather be in Teheran, but I suspect we
might not get there.