many palestinians would have been happy to see arafat go some time ago, and not because they thought they could trade him for peace. i don't think this story was posted here, so i'll provide the link. it summarizes things many palestinians think but that was a side of arafat we never saw--because we've been force fed Arafat, Leader of the Palestinian People, on the one hand, and Arafat, Terrorist Supporter of Suicide Bombers, on the other.
http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/604.cfm (from 5/31) "We feel ashamed when infamously corrupt Arab governments refrain from donating money to the Palestinian people because they don’t trust placing the money in the care of the Palestinian Authority. [ . . . ]
"The new reforms ought to entrench the principle of true dignity and independence [in the Palestinian Authority], elevating it to the level of the heroism of the Palestinian people and the blood of their martyrs. The reforms should dislodge corruption at its roots. It should remove the corrupt and present them for trial. Those who have blighted the Palestinian Authority’s financial reputation, who have stolen the money intended for martyrs and their families, and who have spent lavishly— they are the biggest danger to the Palestinian people. They are as bad as Israeli agents."
j
On Tuesday, June 25, 2002, at 12:01 AM, pms wrote:
> And yesterday's revelation that he stole like 5mil in relief money and
> put
> it in the bank account that supports his wife and daughter who reside in
> Paris and some other upscale sounding place.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Jeffrey Fisher <jfisher at igc.org>
> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 8:58 PM
> Subject: Re: usa today palestine spin alert
>
>
>> never said arafat was popular among palestinians. on the contrary, they
>> don't trust him and haven't for years--rightly so, imo--despite/because
>> of the way he has until recently been propped up by US and even israeli
>> leadership.
>>
>> the only point i was making was that this article manages to draw
>> from a
>> perfectly statistically accurate observation entirely the wrong
>> conclusion: namely, that the israeli offensive was successful in the
>> sense of putting a damper on arafat and palestinian support for suicide
>> bombings, hamas, the plo, etc. etc. it seems to me that the timing of
>> the article coincides suspiciously conveniently with dubya's BS speech
>> this afternoon . . .
>>
>> j
>>
>> On Monday, June 24, 2002, at 07:39 PM, Cian wrote:
>>
>>> Arafat's popularity did go down though after the
>>> israelis let him out of the bunker. Palestinians
>>> (probably rightly) thought he had done a deal with the
>>> Israelis. Then he compounded that by refusing to go to
>>> see one of the towns after the Israeli attack (I'm
>>> tired, so can't remember the name).
>>>
>>> I agree the conclusions drawn by the article are
>>> dubious, but I don't think Arafat is particularly
>>> popular with the Palestinians. Ironically the only
>>> thing he has going for him is that Sharon is so
>>> determined to get rid of him.
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________
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>>
>>
>