Thousands march in anti-Abbas protests in Gaza

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Thousands of cheering Hamas supporters in Gaza on Wednesday burned effigies of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior aides in the rival Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, denouncing them as traitors.

The protests came in response to reports by Al-Jazeera satellite TV about leaked documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Al-Jazeera, which has been releasing the documents gradually this week, says they show Abbas made far-reaching concessions on Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million people are refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed Israel's creation or their descendants.

A coffin draped with the photos of Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat also went up in flames during the march in the southern town of Rafah in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=7919716

[molly77]

1. The middle east is like a powder keg on a hot day.Palestine and

Egypt are vulnerable today, who knows what will come out tomorrow?

[Catherina]

7. And one kid lit that match in Tunisia

I hope history will write that a better era started for average people in the Arab world.

[rug]

2. Can't say I blame them.

[EFerrari]

3. K&R

The two state solution is an industry, the one state solution is the reality.

[No Elephants]

5. Very well put. (Some "solution," tho.)

[No Elephants]

4. When people make quick millions on peace....

[Catherina]

6. He's not even legally President. Term expired over a year ago.

Get rid of that corrupt crook. Saeb Erekat too.

[Matilda]

8. I don't think Saeb Erekat is a crook.

There's never been a hint of corruption in his dealings, and he's done his best in the past to put a stop to it.

I think he's intelligent and practical, but not weak like Abbas, and he's shown no fear of either the Israelis or the Americans in negotiations.

"All I know is that God - of the Jews, Muslims and Christians - is a God of peace, a God of healing and forgiveness, of morality. He's not about bloodshed or vengeance or hatred. And it's time to stop using God for endgames that will result in us going to the cemeteries to bury our children".

He's the only one who seems to have no hidden agenda of his own, and I think where he is involved, there is some hope.

[Catherina]

9. Saeb Erekat, told the Israelis that the Palestinians were ready to concede "the biggest Yerushalayim

...

To hear their chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, tell the Israelis that the Palestinians are ready to concede "the biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history" – even using the Hebrew word for the city – will strike many as an act of humiliation.

Referring to Ariel Sharon as a "friend" will offend those Palestinians who still revile the former prime minister as the "Butcher of Beirut" for his role in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Telling Tzipi Livni, Israel's then foreign minister, on the eve of national elections "I would vote for you" will strike many Palestinians as grovelling of a shameful kind.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/23/palestine-papers-israel-peace-partner

That just pains me and I see no hope with any of these PLO guys. Their whole organization is corrupt. But you're right Matilda, I shouldn't call him a crook.

[Matilda]

10. The really silly thing about the concessions the Palestinians

were ready to make is that they could never sell them to their people. If they tried to sign away so much, there would be rioting. And there would always be a large section of the Palestinian community who'd keep on fighting, so it would be utterly pointless.

Apart from being just plain wrong.

But from what I've read of Erekat, I think he must have been feeling desperate at the time – not hard to imagine, but I believe he's more honest than either Arafat or Abbas ever were. Just mistaken on this one

[Catherina]

11. Agreed. I don't know what he was thinking

but your explanation about being desperate makes sense. I'll take your word about him being more honest. Arafat and especially Abbas turn my stomach. I really don't know much about Erekat so I was wrong to lump him in that way. Fatah in general turns my stomach because they live in a very privileged part of Gaza, get advance notice of bombings and their special areas are never bombed. They remind me of kapos. I know it's not all of them but it still infuriates me. I'll spend more time on Erekat because of what you said. Thanks Matilda.

[Matilda]

12. His family suffered during the 1967 war,

so he wasn't insulated from the suffering caused.

Here's a link to a biog from a Palestinian blog - I don't know anything about the blogger, but he seems to have
done some pretty thorough research, and has given links.

http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/palestinian_biographies/saeb-erekat-biography-1.html

Quotes from Erekat generally seem to resonate with sound good sense, rather than emotional rhetoric.