the new palestinian struggle - stuff michael moore

Jul. 19, 2004 6:48
The new Palestinian struggle

Those who predicted that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would unite the Palestinians as never before must be scratching their heads over recent events in the area.

The successive kidnappings over the weekend of police chief Ghazi Jabali, chief security liaison Khaled Abu al-Ula, and four French aid workers were bad enough in themselves. These events having been followed by the resignations of General Intelligence chief Amin el-Hindi and Preventive Intelligence chief Rashid Abu-Shabak made matters worse.

Finally, the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei left no doubt that the internal challenges to Arafat's leadership are severe, and that all those with fixed notions concerning the Palestinian cause would do well to follow closely the current Palestinian crisis.

Arabs in general, and Palestinians in particular, should be asking these days how the current situation emerged in the first place. While the Palestinians can be counted on to, yet again, blame it on Israel, those inclined to make such accusations should be aware that they will likely ring hollow, even in Europe.

The fact is that Palestinians have kidnapped Palestinians, that very senior officials have proved to lack authority and respect, and that thousands have taken to the streets to protest Yasser Arafat's leadership.

Arafat's response to the crisis, namely the appointment of his own nephew, Musa Arafat, as the PA's new security czar, only further demonstrates his utter misunderstanding of what a growing number of people find flawed with his leadership.

Judging by various Palestinian personalities' pronouncements in recent days, many are focusing on Arafat's political hygiene rather than the broad direction of his policies. According to this rationale, a post-Arafat leader who would be less corrupt and more democratic would be eligible for the succession.

Such a view fails to consider Arafat's central choice, namely to mislead so many to believe that he was out to build a state, while in reality he was out to destroy one. When it came time to build - even when billions of dollars were placed on the table - he was nowhere to be found.

This is the real Palestinian context of the meltdown in Gaza. The same path of violence that Arafat re-embraced in 2000 has since assumed a life of its own and is now targeting its originator.

We may yet be on the eve of the event that Arafat's assault on Israel only succeeded in postponing: Palestinian civil war. This is not a wholly bad thing - not for Israel, of course, but not for the Palestinians either. For too long, Palestinians have subsumed some basic political questions in the unifying struggle against Israel. This was always highly convenient, particularly for Arafat, whose power grows in proportion to the chaos he sows.

But now that this struggle is visibly failing under the pressure of IDF and Shin Bet sweeps, targeted assassinations, and the security fence, the cracks are beginning to show. The violence the Palestinians unleashed is boomeranging. Even if the question of whether to build a state is resolved, the choice of what sort - secular or Islamist? democratic or dictatorial? radical or moderate? - is upon them.

One seemingly inevitable outcome of this struggle is that a generation of Palestinian leaders - none with Arafat's cult-of-personality status and consequent ability to provide a de-facto umbrella of legitimacy for terrorism - will begin to assume some authority in their areas of influence without being able to assert overall control of the Palestinian movement. This is a good scenario for Israel: a divided enemy, more interested in keeping their respective areas cool and less able to wage ceaseless war against Israel.

The struggle we are seeing now is clearly over power, and is therefore a challenge to Arafat's dominance. But those vying to claim Arafat's mantle - and outsiders who are already choosing their favorite horses to back - need to remember that escaping the Palestinian predicament requires not just new leaders but a new political system with a new direction. The question is whether a new leadership will jettison the hallmark of Arafat's rule: when faced with a choice between beginning the building of Palestine or continuing the attempt to destroy Israel, consistently and at all costs choosing the latter.