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Israel-Palestine
Arab columnist urges Arafat to quit
2004-05-17
May. 16, 2004 22:56 By KHALED ABU TOAMEH=
Jihad al-Khazen, a prominent columnist and former editor-in-chief of the London-based, Saudi-owned daily Al-Hayat, has called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to resign to pave the way for a young leadership to take over. His call came in an open letter to Arafat published in Al-Hayat, one of the Arab world’s leading newspapers. He also accused Arafat of driving the Palestinian cause to a dead end.
Memo to Nobel Committee: Front runner for Understatment Medal.
"Our dear brother Yasser Arafat, I suggest that you resign," Khazen, who describes himself as a longtime friend of the PA chairman, wrote. "You have done your best. It is time to give the wheel to younger hands. The American administration wants you to leave the scene, and Ariel Sharon wants to kill you.
And for all the right reasons.
The reasons of both are known. They took a stance from you based on enmity. I came to this conclusion out of love. I am worried about you." Khazen cited Arafat’s age and health as good reasons why he should step down. "You are not young anymore," he wrote. "You are not in the best of health. Your cause is weaker than you are.
And Arafat is wholly responsible for weakening the Palestinian cause.
It needs a brilliant mind and hands that do not shake. I ask you to resign because I am your friend. I wish you well and I want your cause to live."
Many do not, and rightfully so.
He advised Arafat to resign while he is still popular among his people. "You are a democratically elected president," Khazen noted.
"can u han be mi ips? anks."
"One man, one vote, one time..."
Note: More prize winning material.
"If presidential elections were held in the Palestinian territories tomorrow, you would win again with a sweeping majority. That is why I hope you would leave the presidency in your moment of strength, not weakness. This way, you would always be the father of the revolution and death of the homeland. "I know you do not like to listen to someone asking for your resignation. However, I am your friend; and your friend is the one who is sincere with you. Do you remember how our friendship began in 1967 at the office at Al-Hussein camp in Amman? Perhaps you do not; since you have thousands of friends. However, I remember the stairs that I went up, which led to a large room leading to your office. We came out after a meeting that lasted less than an hour to take photos under a bulb that hung from the ceiling. "Thirty-seven years have passed; I wish them to be 40, even 50 years.
Sounds a lot like complicity to me.
"I saw you at the Wahadat camp, then at Al-Fakhani camp. I saw you in London, Washington, Paris, and Davos. Our friendship did not falter in the face of the revolution’s mistakes in Jordan and Lebanon. I was in Washington during the Israeli invasion. I saw you turn tail and run leave for Tunisia. I boycotted you to object to the accumulation of mistakes in those five years. Later, I weakened in front of the revolution and its leader, and we resumed our friendship." Khazen reminded Arafat that he was present during the signing of the Oslo Accords and the handshake at the White House and later at the Davos summit. "Do you remember when I was with you at the same dinner table next to President Hosni Mubarak’s table and his wife in Davos, and Binyamin Netanyahu’s table was in the corner of the hall?" he asked. "And the after-dinner meetings with supporters. They included many peace-supporting Jews. Where are they now? The last thing that I remember from Davos is your awful speech at the end of January 2001. Who advised you to give that speech? Who wrote it? Why? I did not get a convincing answer when other friends and I blamed you in your hotel suite that evening. "Oh my friend. I write this after a sleepless night; thinking about you and your situation. I am not reviewing the mistakes of Jordan and Lebanon. I am not questioning your position on the occupation of Kuwait or your relations with Saddam Hussein. I will not list the missed opportunities in the peace process.
Or, evidently, the horrendous murder committed in his name.
"What you and we are suffering is not enough. The cause is at a dead end, to which you drove it.
A scintilla of truth finally leaks out from around the edges of this sob sister’s story.
This is the truth. You are besieged with the cause. "Do I hear you standing to say: I tried my best, I was right and made mistakes, and I brought back the name of Palestine on the map? Do I hear you say: I resign, and I move out of the way of a leadership which could transfer the name from the map to the land of Palestine? Over 37 years with you, I never doubted your patriotism, and I am not today. You are slime molded by the cause. Since this is the case, I cannot see you allowing Yasser Arafat to become the obstacle or barrier in front of the establishment of the Palestinian state.
No matter how much Arafat continues to be exactly that.
"I do not care what the enemies say. I care about you. However, I care more about the Palestinian cause, which must be more important to you than yourself.
Something Arafat is utterly incapable of realizing.
Nevertheless, you did your very worst best for Palestine. It is your right now to remain dead relax. If you are offed resign today, you will leave with your head on a pike up high. A democratically elected Arab president resigns. Democratic elections are rare in our countries; resignation is rarer.
You folks in Oslo getting all of this?
"My friend, resign. Enough is enough. Do it and give yourself a chance. Give the cause a chance for once."
EMPAHSIS ADDED
Posted by:Zenster

#2  "Arab journalist shot by masked gunmen; had called for Arafat's resignation"
Posted by: sf   2004-05-17 1:21:25 PM  

#1  He will not listen.
The word "shahid" is written on his forhead.
The old fart has long left any consideration for his miserable people behind him.
He will go down history's garbage-can as the president who destroyed his people.
We (at the IDF) will finally have to assist him to achieve the 72 virgins.

prepare the MOAB !
Posted by: The Dodo   2004-05-17 12:04:01 PM  

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