The problem with the democracy argument is that it is entirely
disconnected from reality. Israel does not rule the Palestinians. The
status quo in no way impeaches Israel’s democratic identity.
It is true that the Palestinians are
not represented in the Knesset. But Israeli residents of Judea and
Samaria are similarly not represented in the Palestinian Legislative
Council. Simply put, both the Palestinians and Israelis vote for the
legislature that regulates them. That is democracy (though obviously it
does not play out as well in the Palestinian political system).
The Palestinians have developed an independent, self-regulating
government that controls their lives as well as their foreign policy.
Indeed, they have accumulated all the trappings of independence and have
recently been recognized as an independent state by the United Nations.
They have diplomatic relations with almost as many nations as Israel
does. They have their own security forces, central bank, top-level
Internet domain name, and a foreign policy entirely uncontrolled by
Israel.
The Palestinians govern themselves. To anticipate the inevitable
comparison, this is not an Israeli-puppet “Bantustan.” From their
educational curriculum to their television content to their terrorist
pensions, they implement their own policies by their own lights without
any subservience to Israel. They pass their own legislation, such as the
measure prohibiting real estate transactions with Jews on pain of
death. If Israel truly “ruled over” the Palestinians, all these features
of their lives would be quite different. Indeed, the Bantustans never
won international recognition because they were puppets. “The State of
Palestine” just got a nod from the General Assembly because it is not.
Whether the Palestinian self-government amounts to sovereignty is
irrelevant and distinct from the question of whether Israel is denying
them democracy. Indeed, Israel’s democratic credentials are far stronger
than America’s, or Britain’s–the mother of Parliaments. Puerto Rico and
other U.S. controlled “territories” do not participate in national
elections (and this despite Puerto Rico’s vote last year to end its
anomalous status). Nor do British possessions like Gibraltar and the
Falklands. These areas have considerable self-rule, but all less than
the Palestinians, in that their internal legislation can ultimately be
cancelled by Washington or London. The Palestinians are the ultimate
masters of their political future–it is they who choose Fatah or Hamas.
To be sure, Israeli security forces operate in the territories under
Palestinian administration. But that has nothing to do with democracy;
it is about security. Democracy does not give one political entity a
right to harm others. And that is why American security forces conduct
raids–assassinations, even–in countries around the world. While many
object to America’s aggressive policies in these countries no one thinks
it has anything to do with the democratic credentials of one side or
another. Similarly, the Palestinian military operates throughout
Israel–through rocket and missile strikes from Eilat to Ashdod. Yet no
one suggests Palestinian military activities in Israel–which determine
when there will be school in Beersheva and when not–mean that they have
deprived Israel of democracy.
This is no longer a dispute about democracy; it is a dispute about
territory. The Palestinians have their own government; now their demand
is to increase the geographic scope of their legislative powers to “Area
C,” where 100 percent of the Jewish settlers live, some 400,000 people,
and only 50-75,000 Arabs. The Palestinians want their “no Jew” law to
apply there as well.
Palestinian self-determination is one of the biggest developments that no one has noticed.
'Palestinian' journalists to stage sit-down strike to protest assaults by 'security forces'
The 'Palestinian Authority' is working on the democracy thing. They understand that deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy is not a democrat. They understandthink that the Americans will not be pleased with them if the 'Palestinians' come out en masse to support Morsy. They know that Hamas supports Morsy and therefore they must oppose him - my enemy's enemy is my friend. But they think that the way to get there is to beat up journalists who cover pro-Morsy protests. As a result, there will be a sit-down strike of journalists in Ramallah on Sunday.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in the West Bank called
on its members to participate in the protest and condemned the attacks as an
assault on freedom of expression.
The syndicate called on the PA
leadership to punish security officers and policemen who assault
journalists.
The latest protest follows an incident during which PA
security officers beat a number of journalists during a rally in Ramallah last
Friday in support of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.
The
journalists complained that the officers also confiscated their cameras and
deleted footage of the rally.
The assaults came as anti-riot policemen
used force to break up the rally, which the PA said was organized by
Hamas.
Keep fooling yourselves, Obami, that if God forbid there is ever a state of 'Palestine' it will be a democratic one. It is far more likely that it will look like Syria or Egypt or Lebanon than that it will look like Israel.
Abu Bluff's second term ends just like the first one
There should be telegrams from around the world this evening congratulating 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen. But there won't be. The world isn't going to do anything about it, but it's certainly not going to promote it. Eight years ago today, January 15, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen was elected President of the 'Palestinian Authority.' The second term is ending the same way the first term ended. No elections. Despite constant threats to resign and constant threats to disband the 'Palestinian Authority' Abu Mazen remains in power, and will likely do so until he dies.
Mahmoud Abbas was elected to serve until 9 January 2009, due to Palestinian Internal conflict
he unilaterally extended his term for another year and continues in
office even after that second deadline expired. As a result of this,
Fatah's main rival, Hamas announced that it would not recognise the extension or view Abbas as rightful president.[3][4][5] Abbas was chosen as the President of the State of Palestine by the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council on 23 November 2008,[6] a job he had held unofficially since 8 May 2005.[7] Abbas served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority
from March to October 2003 when he resigned citing lack of support from
Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against
his government.[8] Before being named prime minister, Abbas led the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department.
One of our favorite facts is that history doesn’t disclose her alternatives. The world will never know what would have happened had America and the other parties been held to the standards Shamir insisted on at Madrid. No doubt there are many who will scorn the very thought. But here we are a generation after Oslo, and the Iranians are building an a-bomb, the Arafat who was embraced at Oslo is gone without achievement, the Eyptians have just elected a president who will make it a priority to seek the release of the sheik who masterminded the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the Syrians are engulfed in a civil war, the Lebanese are victims of Iranian-based terror and tyranny, and the Europeans are more hostile to Israel than ever. So the world will miss this practical idealist who knew where he stood and wouldn’t budge.
For all the misgivings many now have about Shamir’s intransigence or his specific policies, part of his legacy is that Jews ought not to pretend not to know what, deep down, they know. Yitzhak Shamir knew what he had seen, both in Europe and then in the Arab world, and he knew what it meant. He was no less ambivalent about the Arabs than he was about the Poles and refused to vote for Begin’s peace treaty with Egypt. Presumably in deference to Begin, he abstained, but he made it clear that he thought Israel was paying far too high a price. Today, three and a half decades later, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Cairo and with Israel now missing the Sinai as a buffer, who was wiser? Was it the Nobel Prize-winning Begin who’d turned peacemaker, or Shamir, who had not? Will the sword devour forever? Yes, Shamir sadly believed, it will. Is it possible that he was right?
Shamir did. He withdrew, like his predecessor Menachem Begin, and did not dispense wisdom or settle scores from the column of a magazine or the chairmanship of a foundation for the years he was out of office. And heaven knows he might still have had much to say. But he understood that a defeated statesman must acknowledge his loss and graciously withdraw from sight. His silence, for 20 years, is a testimony to the respect he had for the democratic process and his profoundly humbling recognition that his time as leader had passed.
Palestinian Authority police employed brute force to break up a second day of protesting in Ramallah on Sunday, with activists and eyewitnesses claiming police assaulted both male and female protesters with batons and chains, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The protests were against President Abbas meeting with Israeli vice-premier Shaul Mofaz. This indicates that peace with Israel isn't all that popular among the Palestinians. By cracking down harshly on the protesters, the PA only serves to hurt the cause of peace.
The Hamas-run government in Gaza suspended the work of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission on Monday, a day before it was to start registering new voters, abruptly halting one of the few tangible steps toward reconciliation with the rival Fatah party, based in the West Bank. The move pushed off the prospect of presidential and parliamentary elections. Though considered long overdue, no date had been set for them. The latest delay added a new complication in a reconciliation process that began more than a year ago with an accord brokered by Egypt that was described as historic but has mainly resulted in new rounds of talks, more documents and broken deadlines.
The first paragraph casts reconciliation as neutral if not a positive development, but what's interesting is in the second paragraph. The phrase "considered long overdue," is misleading. How do we know that the elections are overdue? Abbas and the legislature had defined terms in office that are long over. "Considered" is unnecessary.
Elections are important only if accountability is. Whether it is Fatah or Hamas, the priority of each is staying in power. That is why there have been no elections. That is why there will be no reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. That is why Abbas stifles dissent.
3) Energy and the Middle East
Daniel Pipes disputes an argument made by Paul Miller. Miller, in an article for the National Interest, argued that due to the declining importance of oil, the Middle East will fade from significance. Pipes, while calling Miller's article "provocative and well executed," still disagrees:
This argument is belied by several facts. First, the very cover of the July/August issue of the National Interest, with a tattered flag and a lead essay titled "Requiem for the Two-State Promise: Israel Tightens Its Grip on the Occupied Lands," negates Miller's point. Passions about the Arab-Israeli conflict have only remotely to do with oil. The anti-Zionist forces that rallied in Durban in 2001 and the pro-Israel forces that rally each spring at the AIPAC policy conference devote roughly zero percent of their thoughts to oil, gas, or any other hydrocarbons. Second, Islamism, as the only dynamic utopian and totalitarian ideology extant in the world today, and which largely originates in the Middle East, presents a civilizational danger only somewhat connected to oil (the appeal of Islamism will probably decline along with revenues). Third, the region, located at the center of the inhabited world, bristles with dangers, including tyranny, violence, WMD, and war. These affect everything from sea lane security to refugee immigrants to domestic security arrangements (take a walk around the White House for a vivid demonstration of the latter). Only in the Middle East are whole countries in danger of extinction. Several countries have descended into anarchy, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, and Libya.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir famously lamented that Moses led the children of Israel for forty years of wandering in the desert until he found the only place in the Middle East where there wasn’t any oil. But could Moses have been smarter than believed? Apparently the Canadians and the Russians think so, as both countries are moving to step up energy relations with a tiny nation whose total energy reserves some experts now think could rival or even surpass the fabled oil wealth of Saudi Arabia. Actual production is still miniscule, but evidence is accumulating that the Promised Land, from a natural resource point of view, could be an El Dorado: inch for inch the most valuable and energy rich country anywhere in the world. If this turns out to be true, a lot of things are going to change, and some of those changes are already underway.
Maybe Miller has a point. It isn't necessarily that the Middle East will fade from significance but that oil's influence in international politics will decline.
'Palestinian Authority' arrests dozens after shots fired at Jenin governor's home
Dozens of 'Palestinians' have been arrested after shots were fired at the home of the governor of Jenin. Kadoura Musa survived the shooting unharmed, but died of a heart attack later.
Radi Asideh, commander of the PA security forces in the Jenin area, said that his men were conducting a "huge manhunt after outlaws and thuds."
He said that scores of suspects have been arrested since the start of the security operation over the weekend.
"The criminals will be brought to justice," Asideh said without revealing the number of people who had been arrested.
The Palestinian security forces were searching for the men who opened fire at the governor's house and other outlaws and criminals involved in various crimes, including extortion and murder, he added.
Eyewitnesses said at least 2,000 PA policemen and officers were taking part in the operation.
They said that the forces were conducting house-to-house searches and combing fields and mountains.
"They are even searching in the caves for wanted men," said Ahmed Abu al-Rub, a merchant from Jenin. "This is the biggest operation ever."
Among those arrested are Zakariya Zubeidi, the commander of Fatah's armed militia, Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in the Jenin refugee camp.
Zubeidi, who was once wanted by Israel for his role in terror attacks, was pardoned a few years ago and later became a member of the PA security forces.
I wonder whether any of those arrested will be going on hunger strikes.
This video is mainly about 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen's partnership with Hamas, but there's a lot more here than needs to be addressed: The lack of freedom in the 'Palestinian Authority,' Abu Mazen's undemocratic rule, and his terrible human rights record. No wonder he wants you to pay attention only to his effort to gain 'statehood' while avoiding negotiations with Israel.
'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad has become an expert on democracy.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday that democracy was good for Arab nations, as it was good for Western nations. Democracy, he said, would encourage the rule of law and stability in the region.
“What's good for the West is good for us, too,” he said in a speech in Paris.
'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has taken out an insurance policy against there ever being a 'peace agreement between the 'Palestinians' and Israel.
Ramallah 02/03/2011WAFA (PLO news agency)- President Mahmoud Abbas's desire and the need for the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people for peace based on international legitimacy and renewed rejection of the state with temporary borders, and to offer any concessions to Palestinian rights, and said, 'We are the owners of the right and say our word and our position, and will bear all the pressure for the survival of our decision to an independent, not a confiscation of our decision and that can make concessions, and if we can not go out and try to find a solution with this people will not find '.
The sovereignty during his meeting with the delegations of the refugee camps in the West Bank, Thursday evening, in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, in the presence of two members of the Central Committee of the Movement of the 'Open' Mahmoud Aloul, Nasser example: 'If we reach a peace agreement we will take the opinion of the people if approved will be agreed and, if did not agree to never end everything and ends of power and ends with everything ', stressing that the people of the camps constitute a shield protector of the Palestinian national project.
The president spoke in front of the delegations of refugees around the issues of reconciliation and elections, and said, 'the holding of elections for the inevitable, an issue that is necessary should we care about, and that we implement and benefit must play', and said 'Please let's go to the elections, pain come the election, so it must go to the ballot box , I like you, come elections, and you have you come to elections, and thus how they resolve this conflict and this conflict, because this division of national shame for us'.
...
If we to reach a peace agreement, we will have a referendum involving all Palestinians on all final status issues, but if one of the countries hosting refugees refuses, the referendum cannot be held there as I can't go to Syria or Lebanon or the Gulf and make a referendum without consent of the State .. If we have reached a peace agreement we will take the opinion of the people and if approved will be agreed, and if you do not agree to never end everything and ends of power and ends everything.
So why do I call this Abu Bluff's insurance policy against an agreement? For two reasons: First what are the chances that rejectionist countries like Syria and Hezbullah-controlled Lebanon will ever let the 'Palestinians' in their midst vote on an agreement that has any kind of real compromise?
Second, what are the odds that the 'Palestinian refugees' in the 'diaspora' will ever approve an agreement that grants anything less than an unfettered 'right of return' - which is something Israel can never give?
I think we should make a betting pool on how long 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen will last, especially in light of recent events in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Yemen (sorry, but I can't go in depth on that many countries at once). The 'Western backed' Abu Mazen believes that he will not be swept up in the same 'democracy wave' that is sweeping up his authoritarian counterparts.
“They [Al-Jazeera] thought that Palestine was like Tunisia,” Abbas said, referring to the uprising that removed president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power this month. “They tried to spread lies because they thought that what happened in Tunisia could happen in Palestine.”
...
“Al-Jazeera thought that they could finish us off, but the Palestinian people have responded to their lies and distortions,” he said.
Abbas’s attack on Al-Jazeera came as Egypt closed down the station’s bureau in Cairo and withdrew credentials of all its staff.
Fatah representatives have urged Abbas to follow suit and ban Al-Jazeera from operating in the West Bank, under the pretext that the station incites against the PA leadership.
PA officials expressed deep concern over the current events in Egypt and warned that the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime would be a severe blow to moderate Arabs in the region.
“We are following the events in Egypt with deep concern,” a PA official said. “We are worried that the collapse of his regime would strengthen Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Azzam al-Ahmed, a top Fatah official and adviser to Abbas, said the Palestinians had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of others. “We respect the will of the political forces and the people in Egypt,” he said. “We hope stability and security will return to Egypt.”
He said that contrary to reports, the PA was not afraid that the events in Egypt would have an impact on the situation in the Palestinian territories.
Both the 'Palestinians' and the 'Palestinian Authority' understand the implications of what happened in Tunisia last week. Contrary to the claims of many pundits that the uprising in Tunisia means that the 'Palestinians' are going to rise up and overthrow the 'Israeli occupation,' it seems far more likely that the 'Palestinians' will rise up against the unelected 'Palestinian Authority.'
Shawan Jabarin, the director of al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights group, told Le Monde that it was the president’s office that had banned the demonstration and “all use of the Tunisian flag.” He added that his contacts in the Palestinian government indicated that “they were scared of the slightest spark leading to an uprising against Israel or people demanding accountability from the Palestinian Authority.”
In addition to historic ties and sympathy for the trials of a personal friend, the Palestinian president might have good reason to fear the example set on the streets of Tunis. As Hussein Agha and Robert Malley pointed out in The New York Review of Books this week, the Palestinian Authority, which controls local affairs in about 40 percent of the West Bank, is “a government that rules by decree, with little democratic legitimacy — Parliament has not met in years and elections are long overdue.”
While that hardly makes the West Bank’s local government a brutal dictatorship akin to the regime in Tunisia, allegations of corruption by unaccountable, unelected officials and torture by the Palestinian security forces have raised concerns about thekind of embryonic state Mr. Abbas is building, with international support.
Last month, Tobias Buck reported for The Financial Times from Jerusalem, “There is evidence that a significant number of detainees are tortured during interrogation” by Palestinian police officers. Mr. Jabarin, whose human rights group is based in Ramallah, told The Times, “I feel real concern that we are reaching the level of a police state.” Mr. Buck added:
Some Western diplomats say the harsh tactics will spark a popular backlash and undermine the P.A. “This is of concern to us,” says one European diplomat. Human rights abuses threaten not only to “damage the long-term legitimacy and credibility of the Palestinian Authority” but raise difficult questions for donors: “If we are building a police state – what are we actually doing here?”
We've been wondering the same thing.
Of course, if there were free elections in the 'Palestinian Authority,' Hamas could win them. And that would prove to the skeptics that the 'Palestinians' aren't really interested in a two-state solution.
Please wish 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen a Happy Anniversary. Two years ago today, January 9, 2009, Abu Mazen completed his four-year term as 'President' of the 'Palestinian Authority.' But like the Man Who Came to Dinner, Abu Mazen has never left. He continues to 'serve' as President of the 'Palestinian Authority.'
Today is the second anniversary of the end of Mahmoud Abbas’s four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. He continues to play the role of “president” but is simply an unelected holdover, lacking the legitimacy to make the compromises necessary to produce a Palestinian state, even assuming he were willing to make them. It may be an appropriate day to reflect on the results of Palestinian democracy.
...
We are not likely to see Palestinian elections in the foreseeable future: Hamas lacks a tradition honoring the peaceful transfer of power, and Fatah does not like elections held before their outcome is fixed. A month ago, the Palestinian “High Court” ruled that the cancellation of the West Bank elections was illegal, and the vast majority of Palestinians want them held. But the court lacks the power to enforce its decision, and the “prime minister” has not yet responded to the letter sent to him about holding elections in light of it. A recent poll found that Palestinians view both Gaza and the West Bank as an increasingly police state. The “institutions of a state” the prime minister is building do not include an empowered judiciary or a free electorate.
When the U.S. endorsed a Palestinian state in 2002, the endorsement was conditional: it depended on the Palestinians first building “a practicing democracy.” Nine years later, half the putative state is a terrorist enclave functioning as an Iranian proxy; the other half is a Potemkin democracy unable even to stage elections. The tragedy of Palestinian democracy is that the obstacle to a Palestinian state turned out to be the Palestinians themselves.
But just give them a 'state' and they'll get around to holding elections... eventually.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
