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| Middle East |
| Powell sez Yasser's missed his chance |
| 2002-06-25 |
| U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the American decision to abandon Yasser Arafat and call for a new Palestinian leadership was made "reluctantly" and only after giving him numerous chances to renounce terrorism and implement reforms. "What I said at that time was that Mr. Arafat had been anointed, but what we're saying this time, and what we have come to the conclusion on, is that he is not giving the Palestinian people, and his associates along with him, are not giving the Palestinian people the kind of leadership that they deserve, that they need really to move forward and find peace," Powell said. "And it was reluctantly that we came to this conclusion, but it was the only conclusion we could come to," he said in an interview with National Public Radio. Speaking to the New York Times, Powell disclosed President George W. Bush’s anticipated public demand that Arafat be replaced began in private some ten weeks ago in the Palestinian leader’s besieged headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, with rough talk coming from him. "I told him the direction in which they were moving had to change in a very fundamental and strategic way, and we had to see that if he wanted the United States to be a partner in this moving forward," Secretary Powell said in an interview published Tuesday. "To be blunt, we haven't seen enough of that." "I'm very pleased," Powell said of Bush's long awaited announcement. "I've been working with my colleagues on this almost nonstop." Powell's remarks shed some light on how talks with Israel and Arab and European allies, continuing waves of suicide bombings and Israeli reprisals, and months of intense internal debate finally led the US President and all of his top national security advisers to agree - Arafat would have to go. Powell said of the new approach, "It really captured not only our disappointment with the current leadership, but expressions of disappointment and regret we've heard from Arab leaders, as well as within the Palestinian community." In return for a change in Palestinian leadership and a crackdown on terror, Powell added, Bush has committed his personal and official prestige to establishing a Palestinian state within a timeframe of three years. "Toughness is like a windshield wiper," he said. "It can swing from one side to the other. If they do what is necessary, then obligations will fall on the other side, and I am quite confident the president will expect all parties - the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Israelis - to meet their obligations." Powell said essentially the same things in an interview on FoxNews this afternoon, painting the same picture. The Bush team made an honest effort to get Yasser to change his ways, and at every opportunity Yasser stayed a thug. Bush and his team had to adapt to each contortion as it occurred, but Rantburg, VodkaPundit, Junkyard Blog, Mark Byron and a host of others are vindicated: he didn't wobble. He saw the problem, gave it a serious effort as it stood, then poked it, prodded it, and then put together a solution within the constraints he saw. That doesn't mean the solution he's proposed will work; he's obviously got the Egyptians and Jordanians on board and the Moroccans for some reason, and the Soddies if they stay there. If the backroom talks with Iran work out, maybe he'll see some lessening of support for Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and, second-hand, for Hamas. He's put together a good, honest package, no matter how many nits may be picked on it; and if this one doesn't work, he'll come up with another. FOLLOWUP: Steven den Beste, as usual, has an excellent detailed analysis of the implications. He says it better than I could, I agree with his conclusions, so that saves me much typing. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |