I like this bit from Rick Richman's post at Contentions:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas — currently in the 60th month of his 48-month term, a declared non-candidate for re-election (in the event there is ever another Palestinian election), presently governing only half of the putative Palestinian state — has told Haaretz that a peace agreement could be reached within six months if Israel will make more pre-negotiation concessions.
Peace could be reached not only in our time but with four full months left over to complete Netanyahu’s 10-month settlement freeze. Abbas will hold the football himself.Richman quotes Ari Shavit of Haaretz, who states as concisely as I've ever seen just why a second Palestinian state just is not possible at this time:
With Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip, arming itself to the teeth and enjoying the support of about one-third of the Palestinians, it has the right to veto any diplomatic progress. With Fatah unwilling to recognize the Jewish nation-state and objecting to a demilitarized Palestinian state, there is no chance for a peace treaty.This of course is without even going into the details: lack of leadership, lots of corruption, and no real infrastructure--especially when it comes to protecting Fatah from their Hamas brothers.
Perhaps those countries and organizations who are in such a rush to create this state could let us know just how exactly they expect this thing to work. Then again, I imagine the key thing for them is to just contrive a state--later on they'll try to fix it (kind of like the idea behind passing Obama's Health Care Bill).
Technorati Tag: Abbas.
Abbas ran essentially unopposed in 2005 (Hamas boycotted the election, and Abbas faced no challenge from within Fatah -- his only competitor, Marwan Barghouti, was in an Israeli prison for assisting in the mass murder of Israelis).
ReplyDeletePerhaps there should be a rule that you are not ready for a state until you can run a contested election for president and have it won by someone not an avowed terrorist, or by a party not bent on destroying its neighbor.
Hmmm, kind of narrows down the list...don't you think?
ReplyDeleteThen again, in the case of the Palestinian Authority--it eliminates it entirely.
Come to think of it, the conditions you mention for disqualification, are actually the qualifications that they go by...