The only people who would probably be surprised by this Ynet News report is probably the Obama Administration and the Euroweiners who have invested (literally) so much in the bona fides of Mahmoud Abbas. If I were to summarize the Palestinian position it would be thus -the so-called Palestinian moderates are afraid they will lose to the ‘radicals’ so they want the election post-poned. Ynet News.
The Fatah movement is considering filing an appeal with the Elections Committee and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in an effort to postpone the local elections in the Palestinian Authority due to internal disagreement and division within the faction. The Palestinians consider next month’s elections crucial, as they symbolize another important step on the way to building the institutions of the Palestinian state, as President Salam Fayyad described them.
Fatah hasn’t been able to reach an agreement over the candidates for many of the municipalities and councils, and in many places a list of senior Fatah officials is expected to run against the movement’s official list. The Palestinian Central Committee has failed in their efforts to reconcile the camps, and some fear Fatah’s image might significantly be jeopardized over the internal rift.
The Fatah has also failed to ward off pressures mounted by the large local clans. The clans, who have witnessed their influence decline both on the national and governmental levels, consequently held on to the local authorities with all their power. “The clans in Hebron have made it clear that they are not interested in factional elections, but rather in the division of the council according to a clan hierarchy,” a Fatah source told Ynet.
“People in the clans told us: ‘Fatah, Hamas, we don’t care about any of these. We want our own people regardless of their party affiliation,” the source said, adding, “No one so far has had the courage to confront the clans, and according to estimations the elections in Hebron will be clan-based and not according to party distribution.”
Another matter that is pushing the Fatah to postpone elections is the fear that Hamas supporters will back Fatah opponents, despite Hamas’ official announcement that it will boycott the elections. ”We are concerned that in many places, especially where Fatah is weak and divided, the Hamas will tell its supporters to vote for our opponents, which will ensure Fatah’s defeat in the elections,” said the source.
The peace process is officially dead in spite of any indirect or even direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. If Abbas cannot even garnish enough support for his party membership within local councils then there simply is no viable Palestinian leader who can step up to the plate and negotiate on the behalf of the Palestinian people with the Israeli state. Nor will there be a viable Palestinian leader as long as the Americans and Europeans continue to place all their bets on a man who lacks support among his own base.
Depending on who you want to believe – Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu or US Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell – there is either a building freeze in Jerusalem or not. Personally, I am somewhat agnostic on the issue and believe it all depends on what you mean by a building freeze and how loosely it can be interpreted.
Now the Palestinian Authority has declared that participation of the PA in ‘proximity talks’ with Israel and would only move towards direct talks providing the Israelis successfully implements a building freeze.
So the stage is set for delicate and difficult negotiations, and what happens? Peace Now walks in and attempts to torpedo any chance the ‘proximity talks’ will lead to direct talks. Ha’aretz:
The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said Sunday that renovation work has recently begun for the construction of 14 housing units in an old Israel Police station in East Jerusalem, where plans are in the works for the largest Jewish neighborhood in that part of the city.
(…)The plan calls for the construction of 104 housing units on the land where the former headquarters of the Judea and Samaria police was housed before it was moved to a new building in Area E-1. The plan for the building of the new settlement, Ma’aleh David, was filed for approval last summer by the relevant municipal committee at the Jerusalem municipality.
But Peace Now said renovations within the former station did not require municipal building permits – official approval that could torpedo the new peace negotiations. Once the police evacuated the area it returned to the control of the Committee of the Bokharan Community, which has held ownership over the property and the structures there since before 1948.
All of which should make anyone wonder why Peace Now decided to issue their press release at such a ‘delicate’ stage? Surely, two weeks or 2 months won’t see the end of ‘renovation/construction’ so there is plenty of time to wipe Israel on the carpet later, but why now? What does Peace Now gain by attempting to sabotage and foster ill-will between both parties at this time? The only thing I can see Peace Now gaining; is less a chance for an actual peace. Then again, maybe that is the actual goal.
The foreign funded wingnut group Peace Now established a hotline in Israel where you can anonymonously rat out your neighbours for building or construction during the so-called settlement freeze within the disputed territories and promoted it heavily. Well, it appears they got a lot more calls than they bargained for as Israeli nationalists have been burning up the lines. Arutz Sheva:
But instead, many of the calls are from Israeli nationalists – reporting on illegal Arab construction. The calls reporting the Arab violations – as well as “nonsense calls” – are taking up much of the tape on Peace Now’s answering machines, leaving little room for the messages the hotline was intended for. Responding to the onslaught of “incorrect” messages, Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer said that the varied responses, consisting of reports on Arabs, curses, and even jokes, were “entertaining.”
So glad to provide the ‘entertainment’ and let us hope the patriots don’t let up.
