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| Middle East |
| Marwan sez it's time for new... er... blood... |
| 2002-12-03 |
| Influential Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, now sitting in an Israeli jail, said Tuesday that he believes the Palestinian national movement needs newer, younger leadership. Someone like him, in fact. Except that he's in jug at the moment... According to one of Barghouti's lawyers, Barghouti told the Palestinian Legislative Council: "It is the time for many of the Palestinian leaders and officials to leave their positions after failing in their roles and responsibilities in this decisive battle," referring to the two-year-old Palestinian uprising. Which, while it's been hard on the Israelis, has been a lot harder on the Paleostinians... According to the source, he said Palestinian Authority officials should make way for younger leadership, but did not mention Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat by name. Arafat is 73. Barghouti is 43. Ain't that a coincidence? "This should be done in a democratic and legal way as soon as possible," he said. The Palestinian Authority is scheduled to hold presidential and legislative elections in January as part of a plan to revamp its government. However, Palestinian officials have been saying it is unlikely that elections will be held as planned because Israeli troops encircling most of their cities have made it impossible for them to prepare. Yep. And they haven't changed their oil for awhile, either. They'll probably have to do that, instead... Recently, top Palestinian officials have said the armed uprising was a mistake and should stop. Which isn't what Marwan said. What he said was: "Resistance is a holy right for the Palestinian people to face the Israeli occupation," Barghouti said. "Nobody should forget that the Palestinian people negotiated for 10 years and accepted difficult and humiliating agreements, and in the end didn't get anything except authority over the people, and no authority over land, or sovereignty." "Who gives a crap about authority over a bunch of Paleos, anyway? What we want is land, and our own government, so we can have an army, with tanks and guns and rocket launchers and big airplanes with missiles and that sort of thing." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 They had their chance for sovereignty over some land, just not ALL of Jerusalem. They blew their chance, and a few perceptive ones have realized they've blown it. 'Twould have been better to have taken half a loaf, armed that one to the teeth, then go after the other half later. However, that would have required some thinking on Arafart's part, but he hasn't got the minimum required number of brain cells to complete the task. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2002-12-04 10:43:42 |
| #1 If he ever gets out of the pokey, I expect Arafat will whack him. "I can't believe they fuckin' whacked him!" |
| Posted by: Raj 2002-12-03 20:26:42 |