So yesterday, Abu Mazen and his cronies finally got the Fateh conference together in Bethlehem. Today, even the official spinmeister, Nabil Amr, had to describe the proceedings as “stormy.”
Actually, that M’aan report says that “delegates nearly came to blows.”
Hey, at least they didn’t (yet) start throwing the potted plants at each other as participants in some Likud conferences did back in the 1980s.
Guess what: Some of the delegates even wanted Abu Mazen and the rest of the Central Committee to give an account of what they’ve been up to– financially and politically– in the 20 years since the last General Conference was held.
The Central Committee has not presented any reports on its past actions to the conference.
Ma’an wote that after Abu Mazen came in for a lot of criticism about this, he finally told participants,
- that his 46-page speech from the day before, which glossed the history of the movement including the 20 years since the last conference, would be the reference document to replace the non-existent report from the Central Committee.
Members accused Abbas of protecting members of the Central Committee from accusations that they had failed to do their jobs. Abbas said everyone will be punished for any mistakes they made and no one is being protected or sheltered, adding. Underlying the accusation was the notion that if the conference had been organized outside the West Bank a better conference could have been put together. To this Abbas answered, the “Fatah conference in the homeland is million times better than being held abroad.”
And guess what else. Fateh co-founder, Central committee member, and longtime Oslo critic Abul-Lutf (Farouq al-Qaddoumi), speaking in Algiers, said the conference “has no legitimacy because it’s being held under the shadow of the Israeli occupation.”
He said he wouldn’t recognize any of the decisions that come out of the conference.
Very significant, too: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sent a telegram to Abu Mazen calling urgently on the Palestinians to unite. From the wording of that report in al-Quds al-Arabi Abdullah seemed to be drawing a stark contrast between Fateh under Arafat (“which went from victory to victory”) and how it is now…
Well, I’m not sure about the “victory to victory” bit. But the contrast he drew was noticeable.
Very bad news for Abu Mazen (and the Americans), I think.
already obvious why they haven’t had a conference for 20 years, HEH, HEH.
Hey, look on the bright side, at least they didn’t throw people off rooftops.
And it was good to see the Saudi king being so helpful. Obviously he paid a great deal of attention to Obama’s Cairo speech
An interesting story on the internet about the arrest of Bandar, the former Ambassador in Washington. He was said to have been planning a coup, with Washington’s approval.
Probably quite unrelated but there is another story, in Asia Times OnLine, to the effect that Lebanon’s Druze Socialists, led by Walid Jumblatt, have deserted the unlamented March 14 Hariri coalition. Thus giving the coalition including Hezbollah, a majority of seats and about 60% of the popular vote.
There is a third story, which may be of interest, also in ATOL, regarding the recent elections in Indonesia in which massive irregularities have been alleged.
Like the Parliamentary election results, in the Spring, these favour the ruling party. It is said that millions of ballots were forged.
I wouldn’t mention it except that there was such extraordinary interest, in the media, over the Iranian elections that it struck me that what happened in Indonesia, with a population about three and a half times larger, can only have passed unnoticed by mistake.
Art of the Martyr, Part I: Martyrdom in Transnational Jihadi Media
Been following the Fatah conference and didn’t know if it belongs in the international or the humor section of the paper. A splinter within a splinter, and these are the folks one has to sign a peace deal with? Not worth the paper.
The only thing uniting these actors is the Arafat murder tale. That is the way their mind works, no clear delineation between reality and fantasy. Garcia Marquez couldn’t write better fiction than that.
The telegram from the King was very useful, BTW, telegram? the Saudis are swimming in dough and don’t have email, or skype? Weird.
Israeli settlement freeze not enough for Saudis
Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday that Washington had proposed a one-year freeze last week to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a way of persuading Arab states to move toward normalising ties with Israel.
The proposal was made by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell in talks last week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the newspaper said…
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal flatly rejected such gestures.
He said Riyadh had already placed on the table its Arab Peace Initiative, which offers blanket Arab recognition of Israel for a two state deal with the Palestinians.
“Israel is trying to distract by shifting attention from the core issue — an end to the occupation that began in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state — to incidental issues, such as academic conferences and civil aviation matters,” he said.
“The question is not what the Arab world will offer,” he said. “The question really is: what will Israel give in exchange for this comprehensive offer.”
Washington says that Israel will freeze settlements for a year, the Arab states recpgnize Israel, Israel grabs all of Palestine.
Mitchell is obviously not serious. Obama is not serious. Every day Israel kills a few more, steals a little more. With US cover.
To: John Francis Lee
You don’t really take the Saudi Peace plan as it now stands with Israel required to do all these actions to reset the middle east as it existed in May 1967 without any quid pro quo in return as a serious proposal?
David, let takes Saudi Peace plan as a step forward and sit and talk. Israelis refused it before took a look.
If both parties keeps their guns up then the fights keep on forever.
The history of Israelis behaviours and conditions, tells us, Israelis does not likes to negotiate a peace plane that introduces by Arab as one side and Israeli on other side.
Israelis prefers and endorsing in all her peace offers talks to be individually designed, simply for her more gain.
the Saudis are swimming in dough and don’t have email, or skype? Weird.
Maybe the Saudis are simply boycotting Israel by eschewing routers and motorola chips. Shirin, there’s an example you might follow.
since when does Saudi arabia have any moral authority in the world? is there any doubt that its citizens (especially its women) have fewer civil or political rights than any Palestinian?
No Salah you are mistaken. Ariel Sharon offered to sit down with the Saudis to discuss the peace initiative. He was told it is a take or or leave it deal.
No serious peace plan or any diplomatic exchange anywhere on the planet in modern times is a take it or leave it deal.
It’s just not a plan to be taken seriously.
vadim,
While you and I both know that’s true. The commenters on this site will conflate the rights of Palestinians in Israel who have Israeli citizenship with the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza who don’t have those same rights.
The dispute is between those who got to slurp in the post-Oslo EU trough and those who didn’t, is it not?
Interesting to read several acerbic comments from individuals whose government’s foreign policies in the Middle East are dictated by a cabal of zionisrs and chickenhawks.
Salah, how can you preach pacifist lessons with a straight face when in your own Iraq people keep blowing each other on a daily basis. Have you read the news today, the Sunnis did a carnage of Shiias and policemen for good measure, If I were you I would and sort things out in my own house before lecturing others.
Or at least explain why they keep blowing each other up, the excuse of Americans is gone, bye bye, it is only you the followers of the Prophet, and the splinter group of the newphew (PBUT).
If pacifism is too virtuous a concept for Titus, it follows it simply must be must be for the wicked Semite Salah, who can hopefully be drawn away from such embarrassingly virtuous comments by the personal and ethnic abuse we now see so often here and elsewhere. Smart move guys, do keep it up! I’m sure it’s worked before.
Hey so just a few Americans in Iraq bases, no biggie, right? No longer every night armed foreign soldiers in their streets homes and businesses after invading and deposing their government and eventually murdering their leader. Now they are in remote bases, that’s all forgotten, right, and they are welcome to keep occupying why not? Now that Iraqis have learned to murder each other like Americans, who else can keep the peace?
On the basis of that precedent I’m sure no Israeli would mind Iranian bases in Israel, right?
Or is that all just plain nonsense? I suspect time will tell.
I certainly do think the Saudi proposal is serious. It does not attempt to prosecute or to extract reparations from Israel. It allows Israel to escape scot-free from responsibility for its crimes against humanity of the past four decades.
It asks for, essentially, the status-quo ante. If I were the Palestinians I would insist on provision for a four-lane tunnel connecting the West Bank with Gaza as well, to be paid for by the US funds that used formerly to doled out annually to the Israeli and Egyptian confidence men.
Israel does not want to consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended or to enter into a peace agreement with its neighbors, or to provide security for all the states of the region. Nor does it want to establish normal relations with its other states in the region in the context of this comprehensive peace.
There is no doubt about what Israel wants to anyone who has not been asleep in the Catskills for these past forty-years. Israel wants all of Palestine… and then more.
With regard to that cellphone ad by McCann Erickson, the Palestinians have instructed the world on the reality behind the collective PR fantasy that allows the Obamanation to continue:
Palestinians put Israeli racist ad to test
The Palestinians put controversial ad to test. A video recently posted on YouTube has tried to reenact the game in reality, and found that the result could not be further removed from the situation on the ground: when the Palestinians kick the ball to the other side of the Wall, what they get in return is a salvo of tear gas grenades and bullets.
And someone named Jeff Gates describes the full-court press against freedom of speech in the US by the usual Neocon gang :
The ADL’s hate crimes legislation
ADL was founded in 1913 by B’nai B’rith (“children of the covenant”) to oppose anti-Semitism. According to its website, the ADL now opposes any bias that may “tear at the fabric of our society and fragment communities.” Its model statute includes bias based not just on race, color, religion, national origin and gender but also, with this bill, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.
With each new category, the ranks of potential ADL allies expands. Yet even while mobilizing opposition to anti-Jewish bias, ADL argues that anti-Semitism must also include criticism of Israel.
The Obama/Clinton point man for pardons and “legal affairs”, Eric Holder, has already admitted there is no reason to consider a “hate crimes bill” necessary. No matter, Obama has quill in hand, waiting to jump through the hoop and sign the bill.
John Francis lee,
Do you use the italics to imply that these statements are somehow the official policy of the Israeli government?
The statements are your opinion, nothing more, nothing less. Putting them in italics doesn’t make them bestow on them truth.
One more note to some of the commenters above: I know I’ve said this before and it’s fallen on deaf ears here at this site but the US didn’t invade Iraq for Israel. Why Bush invaded Iraq, I don’t know. I can speculate on several different reasons, but that would just be speculating.
thanks for the update helena. so abbas doesn’t want transparency wrt where all the money has gone. how unsurprising. who’s on the payroll?
jpost (famous for starting rumors) ran an article yesterday claiming fatah had set 14 preconditions. have you heard any other source confirm this?
The italics are to indicate a quote, this time from an article in al Jazeera by Jeff Gates.
I added the bolding over his clause implying a push be the ADL to treat criticism of Israel as anti-semitism and to prosecute it (persecute it in reality) under this new, unconstitutional “law” that its dupes in the US Congress are passing, because I believe that that is exactly what will happen if the law is passed.
The law is an abomination, or Obamanation, if you will, since the Stooge in Chief has already pledged his support for it.
It never ceases to amaze me the nonsense that people will believe. Al Gore claimed to have invented the internet. Once upon a time we would have laughed at someone who made such a statement about the VP of the US. Even if it had been Spiro Agnew who was hated with a passion. Today we have the even more ludicrious claim that Obama’s health care plan will euthanize seniors and down’s syndrome children.
And you want me to believe that Obama supports a law that will make “criticism” of Israel a crime.
We live in the age that we call the “information age” and it is anything but. Believe what you want John Francis Lee. Believe even the worst possible that euthanasia is right around the corner but don’t ask me to believe it.
“It never ceases to amaze me the nonsense that people will believe.”
And your second sentence is proof positive of this. Al Gore never claimed to have invented the internet.
David: Never mind. I should have read what you wrote about the Al Gore/internet thing more carefully before responding. That’s what I get for multi-tasking.
Shirin,
Not a problem.
The above comment is from David not Shirin.
That multi-tasking gets us all.
Probably the only thing we can all agree on.