Hamas nixes Arafat commemoration in Gaza Strip

[shira]

Hamas nixes Arafat commemoration in Gaza Strip
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
11/09/2010 03:11

The decision comes as representatives of the Fatah and Hamas prepare to meet in Syria to discuss ways of solving the dispute between them.

As it has every year since taking control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, on Monday Hamas announced its decision to ban Fatah supporters from holding a rally in the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death.

Zakariya al-Agha, member of the Fatah Central Committee, said the Hamas government had informed him formally of the decision to ban the rally, which was scheduled to be held on November 11. He said the rally, which had been planned by Fatah, was supposed to be held in Gaza City’s Katibeh Square.

The decision came as representatives of the two parties prepared to meet in Syria on Tuesday to discuss ways of solving the dispute between them. Sources close to Hamas and Fatah said the issue of security would be at the top of the agenda.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed the possibility of sharing security powers with Hamas in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip – a move that has drawn sharp criticism from the Islamist movement.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=194540

[shira]

1. Six Years Ago, Yasir Arafat Died; Today His Legacy Still Prevails: No To Peace, No to Compromise

Six years ago, on November 11, 2004, Yasir Arafat died. On that occasion, former President Bill Clinton explained why he wouldn’t attend Arafat’s funeral: "I regret that in 2000 he missed the opportunity to bring into being….” Not Israel, but Arafat did so.

Today, the Arafat era’s lessons have been largely swept under the rug: his persistent mendacity, use of terrorism, cynical exploitation of an “underdog” posture to garner sympathy, and unfailing devotion to the dream of wiping Israel off the map. The placing of that last priority over creating a Palestinian state is why there is none today. Not Israeli policy, not settlements, but the preference for total victory over compromise.

At Arafat’s funeral, one of his lieutenants, Saeb Arikat, proclaimed: "Give him the honor he deserves!" Let it be so.

As the editorial in the London Times put it, he was the man who “threw away the best chance in a generation for an honorable settlement to the Middle East conflict.” In the New Yorker, David Remnick accurately wrote, “Rarely has a leader blundered more and left more ruin in his wake.”

Yet, too, perhaps, as never before in modern history, have so many relentlessly airbrushed away a leader’s career of faults and crimes. What was especially remarkable in so much of the coverage and discussion was the virtual erasure of a career in terrorism which had spanned forty years. There were no scenes of past carnage shown; no survivors or relatives of his victims interviewed. In political terms, his dedication to the elimination of another state and people, consistent use of terrorism, and rejection of peace were thrown down the memory hole of history.

The timeline for Arafat’s life prepared by both the BBC and the Associated Press omit any mention of terrorist attacks and skip the fatal year 2000 altogether. In its timeline the Associated Press only invokes the word terrorism to claim that Arafat had “renounced” it in 1988, though this had not prevented the PLO from committing scores of attacks—usually with Arafat’s blessing—thereafter.

Arabs, who knew him and his history better, were more critical. An article surveying Arab reaction in Cairo’s al-Ahram newspaper concluded that most Arab officials’ private reaction was one of “relief.” They said he had been an obstacle to achieving peace “largely for the sake of his own glory” and called him a man “too self-centered to really care about the misfortunes of his own people.” Not a single interviewee expressed a word of sorrow.

more...
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/11/six-years-ago-yasir-arafat-died-today.html

[shira]

2. Yasser Arafat: Why Many Palestinians Don't Miss Him

Six years have passed since the death of Yasser Arafat and it does not seem that many Palestinians really miss the man.

The number of Palestinians who show up at public rallies to commemorate Arafat has actually been declining year after year.

Arafat, as far as disillusioned Palestinian are concerned, should be remembered as a leader who led his people from one disaster to another.

He died in November 2004, leaving behind scorched earth and tremendous suffering and pain.

Even some of his former confidants admit that he was a ruthless man who did not hesitate to kill anyone who dared to challenge him or draw a cartoon making fun of him.

In Jordan, Arafat brought disaster on his people when he tried to create a state-within-a-state, forcing the Jordanians to massacre thousands of Palestinians in what is known as Black September.

Arafat and his supporters then went to Lebanon, where this time he did succeed in creating a state-within-a-state and played a major role in the Lebanese civil war, which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians.

Most Arab countries refused to receive Arafat and the PLO after they were forced by Israel to leave Lebanon in 1982. Tunis was the only country that agreed to temporarily host the PLO leadership.

Another disaster that befell the Palestinians during Arafat's era was the mass expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gulf countries in the early 1990s -- an expulsion for which Arafat was directly and personally responsible. His public support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait had turned most of the Arab countries against the "ungrateful" Palestinians.

more...
http://www.hudson-ny.org/1660/yasser-arafat-palestinians-do-not-miss-him

[Turbineguy]

3. Yasser Arafat.

The George W. Bush of Palestine.