the problem isn't palestine, page-3

Hamas at least is a creation of Likud.......utter crap...... and they are both parallel forces with the same objectives - to prevent peace.
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And here is my response.....read the last line anti semite...and this is from a left wing paper.

No one is prodding anything....We will respond to terror....but not like the cowardly Spaniards.....

At least some of the Palestinian journos are waking up......

(dodging my question in the other thread I see......ok...I won't rub it in....I know as does everyone else...when I've walked all over you, anti semite)



At the Palestinian parliament

By Danny Rubinstein

Three times last Thursday Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat reiterated the statement that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has to be coordinated with the PA and must continue in the West Bank until the final goal: an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. Arafat appeared before members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) at a formal meeting to mark the opening of the PLC's sixth session.

It was evident in his remarks, and in the remarks of other senior officials, that what is worrying the PA is that the Israeli withdrawal will stop at Gaza, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will succeed in getting from the Americans - in return for the withdrawal from Gaza - agreement for the route of the separation fence, "which steals 58 percent of our land and turns our cities into ghettoes," according to Arafat.

The Palestinian position is opposed in principle to unilateral steps, but they cannot oppose an Israeli withdrawal. The members of the Palestinian leadership seem unmanned by the Israeli plan. The government of Israel, the American administration and other world leaders are not taking them into account any more, and are not asking for their input.

The opening of the sixth session of the PLC was marked by the election of a new PLC speaker and deputy speaker. Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) served for about seven years as speaker, and after he was appointed prime minister, he was replaced by Rafiq Natshe from Hebron.

During the three months of his tenure, Natshe managed to annoy Arafat by displaying too much independence and he demanded that his colleagues replace him.

And so it was. At a meeting of the Fatah bloc in the PLC, it was decided that the post would go to Ruhi Fattouh of Gaza. In his opening speech, Fattouh mentioned the two PLC members under arrest in Israel, Marwan Barghouti and Hussam Khader and two other distinguished detainees: Abed Rahim Malouh, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization steering committee and Sheikh Hassan Yusuf of the Hamas. He then gave the floor to "Brother Abu Amar" (Arafat).

The meeting hall at the Muqata in Ramallah, where the PLC convened, is the size of a soccer field. The council members sit in rows alongside which are small tables with bottles of juice and small cups of coffee. Around the sides sit the distinguished guests, mainly a few dozen members of the diplomatic corps who are serving in the PA. Behind the speaker's table hang a picture of the Dome of the Rock and a cloth banner on which is written in Arabic and English "The Palestinian Legislative Council." In the back part of the hall are the television cameras and the journalists.

The Muqata compound is entered through the eastern gate and one passes through an empty lot that has been partially cleared of ruins and serves as a parking lot. On the side stands a pile of car skeletons that were crushed by the treads of Israeli tanks about two years ago. The astonishing thing about the entrance is that there are no checks and searches.

There is no security. The soldiers and the police let everyone in. At the entrance to the meeting hall, no one asks the guests and the journalists to show any identification. In the back, people smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and talk on their cellular phones. There are hardly any foreign journalists and nearly all the media people present were from the Arab television networks.

At the end of his speech Arafat raises his arms and waggles the V-for-victory symbol. One PLC member repeats the joke that the two fingers that Arafat is waggling now are not meant to declare victory, but to show that there are only two rooms left on the office and residential floor in the Muqata. Then the journalists and cameramen crowd around him. The guards do not try to stop them and he disappears behind a wall of sandbags at the entrance.

PLC Speaker Ruhi Fattouh announces that the next meeting will be held in two weeks' time and a few of the members shout: Why not next week? Enough slacking off! A journalist from New York observes that the gathering looked to him like a town council meeting in a remote American burg. In the opinion of a Palestinian journalist, the miserable impression made by the meeting symbolizes a sinking, impotent, bankrupt and hopeless regime.