-Correctomundo! To anyone who has been paying attention to Palestine, -it is glaringly obvious that "the condition of that negotiation [of -the Peace Process] is a massive breach between the PLO and ordinary -Palestinians." And to think that folks like Brad can imagine that -Arafat can & should rein in desperate Palestinians & Arabs -elsewhere!!!
To argue that the Peace Process was nothing but violence for the Palestinians is reductionist in the extreme. It did not match all the aspirations or just settlement of issues either, but the Oslo process had brought not just transfers of control of large swathes of territory to democratic control by the Palestinian Authority - frankly setting the stage for the power of the present uprising -- but included as well transfer of control of economic development and institutions such as electricity and phone infrastructure.
There is no question that there are strains between the PA leadership - partly because of serious corruption issues -- and the population, but the present uprising is a rather uneasy mix of Fatah pressure on Israel to secure a broader and deeper settlement for the Palestinians while at the same time being a chance for Hamas and other forces to derail the negotiating process altogether. It was a gamble by Arafat and Fatah that will likely backfire, both in the negotiations with Israel and in jockeying for control of the loyalty of the Palestinian people.
As for a just settlement, even the language of "settler" populations is getting pretty useless given the increasing proportion of Mizzrachi Jews - Jews expelled from Arab countries - in the Israeli population. Israel has acted unjustly towards the Palestinians in countless ways, but then so have the surrounding Arab states as well. Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip until 1967 and the Palestinians never were given statehood and self-determination under those regimes. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and other Arab states have engaged in wholesale expulsions of internal Palestinian populations at various times.
If a two-state solution based on 1967 borders - roughly what was being negotiated in the Peace Process - is not the settlement to be negotiated, what does Yoshie and Jim see as the proper goal?
-- Nathan Newman