TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Political Discussion / Debate
-- Why Am I Not Surprised that Arafat ....

Why Am I Not Surprised that Arafat ....

Would refuse to relinquish any power to anybody else in the PA except for him and his own personally chosen cabinet

Arafat 'opposes new cabinet'


Arafat and Abu Mazen are widely regarded as rivals
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has rejected a list of cabinet members drawn up by Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, according to Palestinian sources.
They say Mr Abbas - a leading moderate also known as Abu Mazen - has demoted senior supporters of Mr Arafat and taken the powerful interior ministry for himself.

An unnamed Palestinian official also told AFP new agency that the demoted officials are refusing to join the proposed cabinet.

Mr Arafat has been under international pressure to share power with Abu Mazen - who has called for reform of the Palestinian Authority and a suspension of suicide attacks against Israelis.

The senior Palestinian figures who are reportedly refusing to serve in the new cabinet include current chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and Economy Minister Maher al-Masri, the official told AFP.

He said Mr Erakat and Mr Abed Rabbo had been given the lesser role of minister without portfolio. Mr Masri is said to have been offered the energy portfolio.

The Central Committee of Mr Arafat's Fatah movement was due to discuss the proposal on Sunday - but meeting was cancelled because of the Palestinian leader's objections, AFP reports.

Mr Arafat is said to be particularly unhappy with the appointment of former Gaza security chief Mohammad Dahlan as minister of state for interior affairs.

Mr Dahlan, who has also criticised suicide bombings, fell out with Mr Arafat last year.

Foreign contacts

Only two members of the outgoing Palestinian Cabinet - Finance Minister Salam Fayad and Education Minister Naim Abul Hummus - remain in the same posts.

Nabil Shaath, the outgoing planning minister, is reported to have been given the external affairs portfolio.

Mr Shaath has extensive contacts with foreign leaders and has acted as de facto foreign minister.

Interim peace agreements had prevented the Palestinians from creating a formal foreign ministry.

Mr Shaath and Nasser Yousef, a former senior security official, will also serve as deputy prime ministers, AP news agency reported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2945235.stm

I don't think anyone would be surprised!

the guy is a total fucking moron. Whne he's dead and gone, hopefully the middle east will be one step closer to peace. I can't believe he got the nobel peace prize.

quote:

I can't believe he got the nobel peace prize.

GOD I FUCKING KNOW. God damn Rabin.

Besides that, Arafat is a fucking douche in a half. The day his putrid ass is out of office will stop some of the funding for terrorism against Israel.

That fucking dipshit, maybe they'll put a bomb in his phone and blow his head off.

Israel can't kill Arafat Sharon's promise to Bush ...

Meanwhile it looks like even that old fart Sharon is making concessions:

Sharon: Israel Would Yield Settlements for Peace
Sun April 13, 2003 02:59 PM ET

By Gwen Ackerman
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published on Sunday that Israel would have to remove some settlements to get peace with Palestinians, and called the fall of Saddam Hussein a chance to end the conflict.

Expanding for the first time on previous references to "painful concessions" Israel would make for peace, Sharon also voiced objections to parts of a U.S.-backed "road map" that sets out steps on the way to creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

As an Israeli team headed for Washington with 15 reservations about the peace plan, moves by Palestinian prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas to meet the U.S. condition for releasing the blueprint to end 30 months of violence hit a snag.

Abbas, a leading moderate also known as Abu Mazen, presented a list of cabinet members, including reformist legislators, to President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian sources said.

But sources close to Arafat said he rejected the roster in which Abbas had taken for himself the powerful interior ministry portfolio that oversees Palestinian security forces.

The United States has said release of the "road map" must await installation of an Abbas-led cabinet that Washington hopes will pursue financial transparency in the Palestinian Authority and crack down on militants behind attacks on Israel.

Sharon, long a right-wing champion of Jewish settlement on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, told the liberal Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz he was ready to take steps "that are painful for every Jew and for me personally."

"Our whole history is bound up with these places: Bethlehem, Shiloh, Beit El. I know that we will have to part with some of these places," the former general said in an interview. "There will be a parting from places that are connected to the whole course of our history ... As a Jew, this agonizes me. But I have decided to make every effort to reach a (peace) settlement."

Shiloh and Beit El are Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Israel reoccupied Bethlehem, the site of Rachel's Tomb revered by Jews, last June along with six other Palestinian West Bank cities, after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings in an uprising for statehood.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, said the prime minister was not singling out specific settlements in his remarks to Ha'aretz. Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians "wanted deeds, not words."


SADDAM OUSTER IMPROVES PEACE PROSPECT

Sharon told Ha'aretz he was optimistic the overthrow of Saddam, a staunch supporter of Palestinian militants, would help revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"There is an opportunity here to forge a different relationship between us and the Arab states and between us and the Palestinians," Sharon said.

The road map calls for a halt to Palestinian violence and an end to Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza, to pave the way for Palestinian statehood in the two territories.

The YESHA council that speaks for Jewish settlers said Sharon appeared willing to "expel Jews from their homes" and called such a stance "grave and bad."

The international community says Jewish settlements are illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

Israeli reservations about the road map focus on its prescription for parallel steps by each side rather than an initial, total end to violence by Palestinians, and on its timetable for a state without guarantees of "performance" by Palestinians on their end of the deal.

Palestinians want a formula of reciprocal steps that would require Israel to freeze settlement-building and withdraw forces from Palestinian towns from the start of the process.

Another objection, Sharon said, was Israel's position that Palestinians must give up the right of refugee return to what is now the Jewish state, a demand Palestinians call a non-starter.

At least 1,990 Palestinians and 729 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....storyID=2557121

Of course the next step in the road map to peace in the middle east is the establishment of the PM of Palestine's cabinet. We'll see if that happens anytime soon ...

God this snake is simply immortal

Fuck him and fuck sharon.... neither wants peice cause it will reduce their power

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.