Turkish voters can teach the Arabs few things about democracy, secularism and "Islamic Parties".

The sweeping victory of Recep Tayyib Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in Turkey’s most challenging and crucial parliamentary election is a testimony for the wise and visionary leadership of Erdogan as he challenges the military establishment and the parties that ruled Turkey for most of its recent history. Turkey’s democracy came out much stronger because of this election and because of Erdogan and Gul.

Tayyib Erdogan and Abdullah Gul won a clear vote of confidence from the people of Turkey as a reward for the stability, economic growth, reform and the corruption free government that has characterized the tenure of the Justice and Development Party.

Perhaps the people wanted to redefine and refine the idea of a “Turkish Secular State” that respect and recognize the role of religion plays in the people’s life but not necessarily as the source of its laws. As such Tayyib Erdogan did not win on a platform of “ Islam is the Solution” as is the case in many of the Arab Muslim countries where “Islamist” parties always advance the much often used and misused slogan. Of course many of the “Islamist” parties always failed to explain how Islam will solve the problems of unemployment and poverty, solve corruptions and incompetence of the government, solve the problem of education and economic growth and of course solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. They simply say, “Islam is the Solution”. Of course and so far, these “Islamists” parties failed at every thing and showed that Islam is not the Solution.

The Turkish vote confirm Turkish voters are much more mature and sophisticated than their counterpart in the Arab world. Of course in the Turkish election, Erdogan did not win a 99.9 % of the vote and his party did not win a referendum but won in a very tough fight. Secularist Parties such as The Republican People Party that ruled Turkey for most of its recent history failed to convince, or better said, intimidate the voters that Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party was about to change the “secular” nature of the state as defined by Kamal Attaturk. Its politics of fear failed.

The problem with secular Turkey is that it rejects outright any value system that is based in religion and goes much father than any western secular state by denying entry to public place such a university,public office, or eveb a hospital ( can you imagine that)to any women who chose to wear the hijab or the Islamic scarf. Some generals went as far as threatening they would not enter the presidential office if the wife of Abdullah Gul were inside since she wears the hijab. Perhaps the US and not France can teach the Turks something about secularism and respect for religion.

For most if not all-secular Turk there is confusion as to what secularism is all about. Their secularism is far from democracy and it exclude and disfranchised from full citizenship all those who chose to express their religious believes and values by wearing the hijab. Secular Turk simply denies such rights to majority of its citizens.

Tayyib Erdogan affirmed his commitments to a reformed secular turkey with the need to address the Kurdish minority as full citizens of the state and recognizing their culture and language. Erdogan needs to address these issues heads on. There is nothing wrong with women wearing the scarf and entering public and government buildings; there is nothing wrong with Kurds speaking their language. Tayyib Erdogan can be the next Attaturk who again carry on with refining and redefining secular Turkey with due respect to its diverse population, and respect the people’s expression of their faith. Within secular Turkey there must be room for such different value system, without being against the nature of the state as a “secular” state.

This is the first time in recent history where a sitting party brought stability and economic growth. The Turkish military always thought of themselves as the guardian of the people’s interest and secular democracy when in fact they ran the country as a military dictatorship with elected civilians as ‘managers”.

For the most part, secular parties such as the Republican People Party were too nationalistic for their own good similar to Germany’s national socialist party. The late Bulent Ecevit was a close to a nationalist dictator as they can come by, jailing so many leftists and in fact with the support of the army ran an absolute dictatorship.

Perhaps this is the golden era of Turkey and the people of Turkey should be very proud of their nation and of their maturity as citizens. They for sure can teach the Arabs few things about democracy, about secularisms and of course about Islamic oriented parties.

Where did Hamas go wrong!

Hamas as a Palestinians organization is not known for taking smart and strategic decision with long lasting impact on its programs, or agenda.

No one can ever deny Hamas the right to carry arms and fight the occupying Israel army and fight such an army to gain freedom and independence. The right to resist and fight an occupying army is an absolute right not even Israel or the US could ever deny that to Hamas or to any other group fighting the occupation. The French, the Dutch, the Finns, the Hungarians, the Greeks, the Americans, and I will even go further by including the Jewish militias that fought the British Mandate authority as an occupying power. The fact that the occupying army or the country is Israel or Jewish should not make much difference. The right to resist and fight the occupation using weapons and arms is an absolute right. Killing civilians is an absolute wrong period, no if or but.

Hamas and other Palestinian organizations did make a big mistake and crossed the redline between fighting an occupying army and engaging in crimes against civilians and the use of suicide bombing to kill innocent civilians, even if these civilians happens to be Israelis, Jewish or unarmed settlers. In my opinion, armed settlers are included in the category of an occupying army and as such the rights to fight such settlers is covered under international laws and treaties.

I always warned and spoke out against the deliberate targeting and killings of innocent civilians and the use of suicide bombing to kill and maim Israelis. I always spoke out against the use of suicide bombing as a weapon of choice to fight the Israeli Occupation. Killing and maiming innocent people riding a public bus or eating in a restaurant or having a coffee in a café is absolutely wrong, legally, morally and religiously is simply wrong. There is never, ever any justification to using terror as a means of fighting the occupation. Yes, I do know that Jewish militias and gangs engaged actively in terror and that some Israeli prime ministers are well known terrorists, yet this does not justify the Palestinians engaging in terror activities. Hamas was not well advised when it engaged in this activities leading to its classifications as a terrorist organization.

The other thing wrong Hamas committed was its decision to enter Palestinian politics under Oslo thinking it can rewrite the rules of engagement and rewriting the agreements of Fatah and the PLO. Hamas once made the decision to enter local Palestinians politics and run for the Palestine Legislative Council should have transformed itself from a resistance organization to a political organization. It seems that Hamas forgot to read one key provision of Oslo that Arafat signed. Forget about armed resistance and renounce the use of weapons and terror to gain more freedoms under occupation. Fighting the Israeli occupying army is simply wrong under Oslo. Arafat gave that up.

Hamas simply failed to understand key provisions of Oslo and failed to understand the dynamics that makes up the Palestinian Authority. Hamas should have known better and should have accepted the rules of the game and should have anticipated that the world will ask it to recognize Israel. Hamas was not ready for prime time and its leaders are immature to be in the same game with Israel. It takes lots of smart to outsmart Israel.

Hamas handling of the recognition issue was very immature and came little too late. Addressing the issue of recognition and armed resistance should have been the first thing that Hamas should have tackled. And should have tackled the issue of its labeling as terrorist organization by George Bush and Israel heads on. It did not.

Then came the formation of the government. Hamas should have known better that Fatah having lost the election remains under legal obligation to deliver under its security contract with Israel and was not about to let go of control over all security organizations. Control of these security organizations was a must if Fatah is to continue to receive payments under Oslo. They failed to understand this issue when they should have known that control over the security organization was what led Abbas to quit as prime minister when Arafat refused to let go of the security organizations, of course for different and obvious reasons.

Hamas did not use the people discontent and disgust with Palestinian security organizations such as the infamous Preventive Security Organization, and organization that is made up of thugs and is used as a racketeering organization. Hamas did not make a good public case for its reasons to take over security organizations, making the fight with Fatah over security organization as a fight over employment and payroll and not over public interest. I am sure that the people in both Gaza and the West Bank would have supported Hamas take over security organizations if Hamas did not behave the same way as Fatah. Saeed Syiam was not different from Mohamed Dahlan and Syiam wanted to take over the Preventive Security to perhaps get even with Dahlan and not in the interest of public order. Hamas did a very poor job of managing the conflict with Fatah over the security organizations, which are the core of Oslo. All the rest is of no value.

Hamas compounded its problems having failed to make an advance case with the public about the abuses and misuses of Preventive Security as a the main source of breakdown of law and order and complete sense of insecurity in Gaza and should have waged a good PR campaign before its misfits and thugs sweep in taking over the security organizations. Fatah exploited this making Hamas take over of the security organizations as a Coup d’etat and a take over Fatah shops is a take over of the PA institutions, making no distinction between shops of the PA and shops of Fatah and public institutions.

Hamas committed the ultimate mistakes when it killed and murdered members of Fatah, even if they were thugs in such callous manners without due regard for common decency and due regard to basic Islamic principals. It seems the criminal minds of Hamas won the day but lost the game. Hamas raw and criminal behaviors in dealing with members of Fatah, even if there were all criminals, do not justify the way Hamas dealt with them. Hamas should have used the opportunity for takeover to show it is completely different from the thugs of Fatah. Hamas should have known better and should not have allowed members of its Executive Force to behave the same way Preventive Security behaved and should have not allowed any of its forces to enter the offices and homes of Abbas and Arafat and should allowed its members to destroy public property, even if it belongs to the opposition. Hamas with this behavior have lost much of the good well it had in the public mind. Hamas forgot that it won the election not because of its armed resistance program but because the people where disgusted with Fatah and its corruption and failures. Hamas must not think of itself as the appointed representative of Allah in Gaza and think they can get away with murder.

What is wrong with the Arab street for accepting all this failure? Part 2.

I am one of those who spoke repeatedly and often on failures of leadership in the Arab world and I often spoke critically and not so politely of the leadership with the Arab world and was and remain particularly critical of the past and present Palestinian leadership.

However, I did on a number of occasion spoken of the need for a massive popular uprising in the Arab world that can sweep away and out of power a number of Arab leadership who certainly overstayed their welcome and whose continued leadership bring nothing more than a disasters.

Never understood why the Arab masses, and in particular Palestinian public do not rise en mass, similar to the uprising that swept away the Shah of Iran out of power making sure he left very humiliated in punishment of his years of arrogance and abuse and crimes committed against the people of Iran.

Never understood why the Arab masses in Iraq did not rise en mass against Saddam, similar to the uprising against Nicolae Ceasusescu the leader of Romania who was no less of a criminal than Saddam and whose use of secrete police to oppress and intimidate and murder the people of Romanian no different than that of Saddam.

Never understood why the people of Syria did not rise against Hafiz Assad like that of the people of Poland when millions took to the streets defying one of the most oppressive Soviet regime putting an end to rule of the Soviet Communist Party in Poland.

Never understood why the people of Libya did not rise against Muamar Qaddafi similar to the people of Hungry when they rose against the leaders of the Communist Party driving dictatorship out of power.

Never understood why the people of Sudan and Egypt did not rise en mass and drive Nasser and his incompetent and dictatorial regime and that of Bashir and his criminal regime out of Sudan similar to the people of Czechoslovakia.

Never understood why our people seems to lack the collective courage to rise up and take matters in their hands and put an end to years of humiliations and failures of the nation. I am sure that our people do not lack the courage to face death, since they do face it and millions ended up in the grave years en mass. They are willing to die by the millions, as a direct decisions by their rulers, yet never use this death en mass to make gains in freedoms and liberty and self-dignity. Never understand why they do this. They allow dictatorship to kill them in retail, yet not willing to die en mass to gain their freedom.

As I see it, the problem is the lack of leadership from the masses that can organize and lead the people en mass and drives these criminal dictatorships out of power and reclaims their own freedom, liberty and reclaims their own country. The Arab world always lacked the honest and competent intellectual leadership that can rally the people around them and lead them to freedom. Arab intellectuals and lack of competent leaders like those of Ghandi, Mandela and Havel. Arab intellectuals have always been a source of the problem and do not appear to be part of the solution. The Arab masses need some real help.

What is wrong with the Arab street to accept all this failure? Part 1

In the Middle East and in the US, we have a habit of blaming the governments for all of the ills that afflict the nations. Sometime we go too far to the point where we blame the government for bad weather, and disaster.

In the US unlike the Middle East, there is a constitutional government with over couple of centuries of established rules that governs changes in government and in administration. The House of Representative is up for elections every two years, though 90 % does not change. The Senate one third changes every two years, though again, hardly a change takes place with the same faces coming back again and again.

The only sure thing that changes is the president, where thanks god, there is a term limit of two consecutive terms so that some one as bad as Bush or as good as Clinton can only serve two consecutive terms of 4 years each.

However, even with all of this constitutional provisions that allows for an orderly and constitutional changes, though the people vote for the change, it is the lobbyist that makes all of the difference and the one that rules Washington. As such the War on Iraq can be very unpopular and disastrous, yet, it is almost impossible to change course and force the president to withdraw troops. Administrations do not lose power or get voted out of power by a parliament that can vote on a no-confidence vote and the chief executive in this case, the prime minister is forced to call for a new election and resign. This does not happen in the US. Unless impeached the president serve his term and without an overriding majority from the apposition party can take the nation to disaster.

In the Middle East and especially in Arab counties, presidents rule like Kings and of course based on such faulty and fraudulent democracies, presidents are voted on by a “referendum” where a sitting president is voted by 99% of the voters. In the case of the late Saddam Hussein, 100% of the voters voted him in. His Ba’athist Party and his Intelligence Services where able to even stop the angle of death from making any visits that day, insuring Saddam wins 100% of the votes.

And hence is the source of the problem and that is why the Middle East is in big mess. We always blame the governments but we hardly ever blame the people for keeping these creeps and these corrupt and incompetent leaders.

After Nasser lost the 67 War, which he knew his country and his army is ill prepared for, millions of people went to the streets of Cairo in support of Nasser and asking him to rescind and change his mind about resigning. Of course we all knew the result of Nasser’s failure. More than 5 million Arabs were put in virtual military jail, not only losing their lives, but losing their properties and lands as well. Nasser and Nasser alone is responsible for the loss of Jerusalem to Israel and for the Israeli Occupation that lasted 40 years.

Hafiz Assad who was the minister of defense during the 67 war took over the government in Syria, and he ruled for over 30 years and when he knew he was unable to totally destroy the country, drafted his son to take over and of course he won a second term with 99% of the votes.

Arafat ran and totally controlled the PLO and led the Palestinian people from one disaster to another over these years, totally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who died during his watch and of course after all of these deaths and tens of billions of wasted and stolen money, he destroys the people chance for liberty and sign Oslo thus perpetuating the Israeli military occupations and with no sense of shame or honor accepts the role of managing the occupation for and on behalf of Israel under Oslo.

Saddam Hussein, takes over Iraq with some $50 billions in its treasury and a nations with millions of college educated people and with a nation endowed with oil, water, land and human resources and when he is finished millions of his people died because of his stupid wars and polices and the country burdened with hundreds of billions in debt not to mention of having direct cause of the American invasion and again, the loss of millions of people and total destructions of the nation.

Muamar Qaddafi, that wonder kid from Libya is another story of failure, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on stupid and reckless world mission while his people suffer from lack of water, good housing, good hospital and with Libya looking more and more like a third rate country rather being a match for UAE.

Al-Bashir of Sudan is another disaster. A general who failed at his vocation decided to take over Sudan with the support of another misfit, Hassan Al-Turabi and both wanted to make Sharia’ rule over animist and Christian South resulting in a war that lasted some 20 years with more than 2 million dead and with wasting whatever little resources the country have on his stupid and reckless war. Now that the south is ok, he creates and is responsible for the disaster in Darfur with more than 400,000 dead due to his stupid and reckless policies.

Lebanon is another story. Here there are no traditional dictators, but very classical family mafia, who ruled Lebanon and who are directly responsible for years of conflict and upheaval and who are directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of innocent people who died in the civil war, not to mention the more than 60,000 that remains missing and no one is bothering to talk about. Here in Lebanon, it the collective leadership that has failed the nation and have failed to learn from the lessons of the war and transform the nation from a feudal, sectarian nation to a truly democratic nation worthy of its beauty, energy and talents of its people. What a shame. This is one country that is hard to understand, let alone justify the failure to end the sectarian politics that is at the core of its problem and misery.

The list of incompetent and inept leadership in the Arab world goes on and on and on… however and as we have learned from many countries in the world, masses and the public in the Arab world is also responsible for the failures of the system and remain solely responsible for the mess that is the Arab world.

They Plan So More Can Die.

It was not so surprising for the Republicans to successfully defeat the half hearted measures by not so determined Democrats setting a time table for our troops to come home from the hell Chaney and Bush put us in.

Those die hard NeoCons who planned, marketed and managed the initial war on Iraq have left the scene after putting the nation is a such a quagmire wasting the lives of over 3,600 brave men and women and maiming for life some 30,000 neglected war veterans who could not find a decent hospital to treat their physical let alone mental injuries.

People like Richard Perl, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Zionist NeoCons all left the scene leaving George Bush and his team to clean the mess they created. Of course that most courageous of them all, the well know chicken hawk, Dick Cheney, who when called to serve his country, simply refused said, “I have much better things to do” than fight for his country, continue to be in charge. Of course, it is ok for others to fight his war and die for their country.

The Republican members of Congress both the House and Senate are more interested in protecting a president and vice president than caring for the nation and its soldiers and its precious resources. The Republicans of Congress care more about their position and status than care about the nation and the soldiers they put in harms way. The Republican in Congress care more about their own business connections and the benefits the war brings to their donors than give a damn about the hundreds of thousands of soldiers they sent to Iraq with an impossible mission and under false and frequently reasons.

The White House and a boneless Republican Party lied to the nation when they made the decision to go to war and now use the excuses of supporting our soldiers for lacking the courage make the decision to make the inevitable decision to bring our troops home. Perhaps the Republican members of Congress and all of the pundit that continue to support the war, behind TV cameras and in studios can go to Iraq and replace our soldiers for one week, yes, only one week in Iraq. Perhaps Dick Cheney will have his missed opportunity to serve his nation by taking the place of one infantry private in Ramadi.

Never seen such a callous disregard for the nation interest than I have seen from this White House and the Republican members of Congress. That of course does not give the Democrats any less excuse. They also voted for this stupid war and now they want to make it a campaign issue. How dare they speak of representing the soldiers when they too shared in the decision to send them to hell?

Under Cheney-Bush administration this nation and its leadership lost any all sense of dignity and morality. It is one of the most corrupt and incompetent administration to ever hit the White House. They are responsible for the death and murder of over 3,600 of our soldiers and responsible for wasting over $500 Billions of the nation financial resources for a war they should have known it was the wrong war, for the wrong reason and the wrong time. This war has nothing to do with protecting our national interest. This war has everything to do with a foreign agenda, and with personal vendetta and nothing to do with the war on terrorism. Since when do Republicans have a mandate from the nation, let alone from God to have a monopoly on issues of national security? When in fact during their administration, and due to their misguided policies our nation faces an ever greater danger of terrorism. It is the Bush-Cheney administration that gives terrorists a sense of purpose.

George Bush and his planners in the White House will keep this war going until they move out of office, leaving the mess and the inevitable defeat for the next administration and of course adding some 1000 additional graves and adding some $150 billions in additional costs. Yes, this administration plans so that more can die.

Why the PLO is a failed, illegal and illigitimate organization?

Why the PLO is a failed organization will sure rile tens of thousands of Palestinians who continue to live the dream that was the PLO? Too bad the Palestinians in over 40 years of the PLO failed to look inward and see and finally admit why the PLO is a failed organization? They simply refuse to admit the truth always making excuses.

To begin with the Palestine Liberation Organization failed to live up to its name and liberate one single inch of Palestinian territories. Forget about 1948, we are only talking about 67 Occupied Palestine. The PLO is in Ramallah under the control and rule of Israel and under Oslo is nothing more than a security contractor and subcontractor for Israel’s civil administration managed and run by Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

It is true that tens of thousands of Palestinians died for the cause, a cause to liberate Palestine, perhaps not all of it, but at least that part occupied by Israel in 67. These young dedicated and braved souls died in Lebanon and few hundreds died in raids across Israeli borders. For the most part, the majority of victims died in Israeli air raids against Lebanon and in refugee camps and hundreds perished in the open sea in poorly planned and poorly executed operations and thousands died because of incompetent commanders. Never the less, they were all brave and committed. While young fighters and Fidayeen fought bravely Israeli advancing army on Beirut, many of the commanders ran away from the fight and were reward by Arafat with ranks of colonels and generals and now run the much corrupt Palestinian Security Forces and intelligence services.

Arafat over the years made sure that he controlled the purse and with it he controlled the hearts, minds and conscious of members of the Palestine National Council supposedly representing all Palestinians. The sad truth is that all members of the PNC were on the payroll of Arafat and he knew how to squeeze them when he wanted to and that is why in over 40 years there was never a challenge to Arafat and there was never an open and thorough investigations of the many failures of Arafat and his PLO. Arafat was able to silence the most committed and he made sure that he black mailed any one causing a serious challenge to his rule. That is why there was never an open financial accounting of the treasury of the PLO where billions of dollars simply disappeared and remained unaccounted for and there was never serious debate. All were yes people. Those who posed a serious challenge to Arafat ended up with a bullet in the head or the heart.

Arafat and the PLO committed major sins and caused irreparable harms for the Palestinians in Jordan before and after September 1970. The same is true in Lebanon where he and his executive thugs bragged they run Lebanon and they sure did. They ran it from the bars and brothels of Beirut while many of the young Fedayeens where putting their lives on the line. In Lebanon the PLO and its thugs behaved recklessly and without due regards and respect for the people of South Lebanon. That is why they greeted the invading army with open arms only of course to turn against the occupation and chase the Israeli out under the leadership of Hizboallah.

In Kuwait, Arafat and his executive committee are directly responsible for the expulsion of more than 350,000 Palestinians from Kuwait, who lost every thing and who lost more than $13 Billion in assets, business and personal belonging, due to Arafat stand with Saddam and in support of the invasion of Kuwait. Yes, no one can deny that Arafat in fact sided with Saddam, and that members of armed Palestinians factions on the payroll of Saddam did terrorize and commit murders against many of innocent Kuwaiti citizens. Never understood why these exiles never filed a criminal and civil lawsuits against Arafat and members of the executive committee. It is never too late.

More over many of the organizations or “fasaels” forming the PLO where on the payroll of many of the Arab regimes, doing their bidding and doing their dirty games and engaging in murder and crimes against opposition groups. In fact tens of thousands of Palestinians died in fights pitting one Palestinian organization against another. What we saw in Gaza pale against what we saw and witnessed in the heydays of Yaser Arafat and his PLO.

There is nothing wrong with negotiating peace with Israel and I am one of those who believe that only through negotiations can the Palestinians end the Israeli Occupation that lasted over 40 years. However, one has to admit that Arafat and his PLO missed so many opportunities to negotiate peace with Israel. One can only recall former president Carter formal offer to Arafat to renounce armed struggle and recognize Israel and the US will make sure the Israeli Occupation will end and a suitable solution to the refugees will be found. We need to remember that only 5,000 Jewish settlers where in the Palestinian territories. There were NO Jewish settlers in Hebron, in East Jerusalem, in Nablus, in Ramallah or Jenin. More than 95 % of the Occupied Territories were free of Jewish settlers. Yet Arafat beholding to Hafiz Assad preferred to play regional politics than make a decision that can save his people years of occupation and save their land and property from confiscation and outright theft by Israel and Jewish settlers. He and his idiots never had a plan for liberation and never had a plan for peace and never had a plan to run and manage a country. When in Lebanon and Tunis, the PLO never bothered with those under occupation. When it came to Ramallah it never bothered about those outside. This is the PLO that Abbas talks about now. He simply discovered the wonder that is the PLO.

Yet, with all of these failures and shortcomings, there was never a call for an open debate on issues and policies affecting the future of Palestinians. Members of the Executive and Central Committee never muster or have the courage to challenge Arafat and all of his failed policies and decisions. The PNC was even worst. Whenever they met, it was dinning and winning and of course having a nice time at the expense of the people with no serious efforts to truly represent the people’s interest. Arafat ran the PLO just like the Soviet leadership ran the Communist Party. The leadership selects whom to run, the leadership organize unions and associations and then select heads of these associations to be members of the PNC. In fact there was never an open election for memberships. Arafat and his mafia cooked every thing and the people ended up being royally screwed by Arafat and his mafia.

However the worst was yet to come with Oslo. Those who negotiated Oslo where illiterate, they did not read and write and they did not have any sense of intelligence to know what they were negotiating. When they concluded Oslo, they negotiated a security contract where the PLO will end the First Intifada in exchange Arafat and his PLO will be rewarded with billions of dollars for his organizations and all those who failed to liberate Palestine.

While Arafat and the PLO, as the “representative of the Palestinian people”: recognized Israel and its illegal occupation, Israel only recognized Arafat and the PLO but never recognized the freedom and independence of the Palestinian people nor their rights for an independent Palestinian state. While Arafat recognized a state, Israel did not recognize a Palestinian state, but recognized an organization, which is at best, is illegitimate and illegal and does not represent the Palestinian people.

Arafat failures did not stop with Oslo. He and his many and not so smart leadership came back to Occupied Palestine ill prepared and without any plans to run and manage any thing, let alone manage a territory under occupation. I am sure Israel awarded Arafat the contract without having to pre-qualify him and his PLO and see if they are able to manage local traffic, let alone manage the affairs of some 3.5 million people.

Arafat and his buddies accepted to run the occupation for Israel and they made a big mess of it. They ran one of the most, if not the most corrupt and incompetent government ever to exist in Asia and Africa. The PA was and remains riddle with corruption and incompetence with billions stolen and remain unaccounted for. Thugs who ran the security organizations for Israel ran one of the worst racketeering organizations ever to hit the Middle East. They put Israel’s many mafias to shame.

Prime ministers and ministers and heads of security organizations made a killing running a mafia and fleecing the people. They have control over distributions of fuel, gas, cement, food supplies, medical supplies and many others. One of the prime ministers even sold cement to build the Israeli Apartheid Wall, and is now making a killing on housing projects in Abu-Dis. This is the same man who ran and managed Samed Enterprises that lost billions of dollars of hard earned money where Palestinians had to contribute 5% of their income to go to a fund operated by the PLO, only to have the money disappeared in fraudulent projects and enterprises and into the pockets of senior officials of the PLO.

Let us not talk of the PLO as a liberation organization, it did not liberate any thing, in fact it perpetuate the occupation and our people enslavement. It is not the representative of the people since none of its members and officers ever elected or voted by the people. It is an organization whose leadership should be in jail, and not making life and death decisions for and on behalf of the Palestinian people. It is an organization that shamed us.

While we are all disgusted with events that took place in Gaza and the killing and murder that took place, but then many more, in facts hundreds more died in Gaza during the last year in infighting between the thugs of Fatah and the thugs of Hamas. Why is Abbas so offended when his men where murdered and driven out, and he was not offended when hundreds of innocent people died in Gaza through more than a year of lawlessness instigated for the most part by Fatah thugs and members of the Preventive Security Forces who robbed and fleeced Gaza blind.

The Palestinian leadership that negotiated Oslo is unqualified and unfit to negotiate an end to the occupation.

Can the same Palestinians leadership that negotiated Oslo negotiate an end to the Israeli Occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State? The answer is obvious, NO.

The Palestinians leadership of the late Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qurai and all of the Fatah leaders, so far, failed to admit that Oslo was nothing more than a security contract between the late Arafat and his team and the Israelis and was nothing more than a face saving measures for a leadership that caused great harm and loss to the Palestinian people especially those of Kuwait as a direct consequences of Arafat support of Saddam.

After 15 years of Oslo it should be obvious to every one except the Palestinian leadership that Oslo was not the right way to achieve peace and end the Occupation. Oslo was at best a security contract where by Arafat and the PLO guaranteed Israel an end to the First Intifada with Israel and the West giving direct financial aid, compensation for this.

It is also obvious that the leadership was not keen, perhaps overlooked all the issues and consequences of occupations such as building and expanding settlements, road blocks and checkpoints, stealing more land and the ever present right of Israel to enter all occupied territories with tanks and armored cars and of course pursue and kill armed Palestinians not member of Arafat security forces.

Both Israel and the Palestinians Authority leadership have clear understanding that Palestinian security organizations where not to provide security for the people from Israel and its army and its settlers, but to provide security for the occupation and of course protecting Israel while it pursue its policies. The Palestinian Authority under Oslo was nothing more than the PA acting as subcontractor to the Israeli Civil Administration with no authority over land and no authority over residency. In fact the issue of residency like fuel and other business opportunities where given as contracts to those favored by Arafat with the possibility of millions of dollars in fees, money that does not go to the treasury but to the pockets of key people within the authority.

The present Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qurai, Nabil Amr, Yaser Abed Rabou, Nabil Shath, Mohamed Dahlan, and Saeb Eraikat, I doubt if they really understand Oslo and its obligations and understand how such an agreement failed to liberate and end the occupation. How can these people again negotiate and end to the occupation. Very unlikely. During the period where the Palestinians where negotiating implementations of Oslo, many of those responsible for the negotiations never read any files, nor prepared any documents to help them negotiate and get a decent deal. Peres expressed that clearly when he said, during Oslo "we negotiated with our self" and not with the Palestinians.

For the most part, those who were involved in the negotiations where privy to private and confidential information and where able to make good use of such knowledge to acquire large tracks of lands and make a killing out of it. A case in point is the fact that Jamil Tarifi who was responsible for the home rule, did not have any maps and in fact some of the key neighborhood in my hometown of El-Bireh where in area C, which means under Israeli control. Such is the kind of leadership we have within the present Palestinian Authority. Without exception, the entire team responsible for Oslo could never be the team entrusted with negotiating an end to the occupation. The facts on the ground are best proof of that.

Furthermore, the inability of the Palestinian Authority over the last 15 years to establish any sense of institutions and proper management is another proof of that. Moreover an organization riddled with corruptions with billions lost and wasted and monopolies given to cronies could never be entrusted with the future of the nation.

America's gift to the Arabs used to be the Care Package, under Bush and Rice it is the Cluster Bomb.

I am sure Secretary Rice did not watch “Every Woman” on Aljazeera International special program on Lebanese women and Israel and America’s war on Lebanon.

The use of cluster bombs is illegal and against the Geneva Convention especially when such cluster bombs are used against civilian targets. The US eager to participate in having the Lebanese factions reach an agreement at the round table discussions decided to give the green light for Israel’s war on Lebanon. Not only did the US give the green light it expedited the transfer of over one million cluster bombs to Israel so that it can drop these bombs using US made planes to kill and maim thousands of civilians.

President George Bush and Secretary Rice viewed Hizbollah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers as a golden opportunity to teach the Lebanese people something about democracy and something about American value system as practiced by Chaney-Bush White House.

One has to ask the question why drop over one million cluster bombs few days before Israel decided that it is losing the battle with Hizbollah and that not even nuclear bomb will change any thing on the front line with Hizbollah?

The Aljazeera program in contrast to Secretary Rice who promoted and supported Israel’s dropping of cluster bomb on civilians in South Lebanon, showed Lebanese women with greater commitment for their country than ever, and showed women defying military airplanes as they drop their bombs to report the news and show what the great civilizations of Israel and American is all about. Total destructions of entire towns will not deter the people from rebuilding and celebrating life while Washington and Tel-Aviv support and celebrate death.

Hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs did not explode and are a time bombs killing scores of children so far. Perhaps Secretary Rice should take the time and see the section on women trained and working with other men removing Secretary Rice gifts to the Lebanese people. The actions and commitments of these women should be celebrated around the world, as the forces of good removing cluster bombs the tools of evil governments and evil leaderships.

The Lebanese people and children should always remember President George Bush and Secretary Rice as those responsible for Israel dropping more than a million cluster bombs. That means one cluster bomb for every five Lebanese. In the old days, people of the world looked forward to the Care package that America sent as a gift to the world. Now under the rules of George Bush and Condy Rice, the people of the world can look only for cluster bombs and more and more killings. We all miss America of the old days, when America stood for all the good things we wished for. George Bush and his team have ruined in few years what millions of American build over centuries.

Every time a child die as a result of a cluster Bomb, I am sure Secretary Rice will be passing the candy to her staff celebrating another failed policy. Thanks to all of the Lebanese women who showed strength and commitment to their country. Yes, let us celebrate life while Condy Rice can celebrate death and pass the candy around every time a Lebanese or a Palestine child dies.

Pakistan have been manufacturing terrorists for a long time. President Musharaf decrees could not change the production line of the Madrasa.

The tragic events at the Red Mosque in Pakistan and the killing of some hundreds of students should remind all of us that Pakistan was and is the main source of radicalism and Islamic fundamentalists and the source of Islamic terrorism.

The British created Pakistan as a favor to one of their favorite Ali Jinah the “secular Muslim” who enjoyed “scotched on the rocks” and enjoyed the company of beautiful British women and who was the least qualified to run and lead a new Muslim nation.

Britain remains solely responsible for years of conflicts between India and Pakistan and remains responsible the millions of people who died as a direct result of the British decision to divide the Indian subcontinent into two separate states, secular India and Muslim Pakistan.

While democracy and economy flourished in India despite all odds, Pakistan was and remains for the most part a military dictatorship run and operated by generals even at a time when Pakistan has a nominal civilian rule. The military always remained in charge and remains the source of Islamic radicalism and Islamic terrorism.

Of course the Pakistani military has some help from outside, in fact had a great deal of help from non other than the CIA. The relationship goes back to the early fifties and became a real partnership in the last days of President Carter and the early days of President Reagan.

The main trigger was the take over in Afghanistan a pro-Soviet government and of course with the cold war as a real war; the American covert intervention in Afghanistan preceded the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in January 80 just in time for President Reagan to take the helm in Washington and the birth of modern and radical Jihad.

The Soviet invasion was the golden age of the cooperation between the American CIA and the Pakistani military and Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. To fight the Soviet, both the CIA and Pakistan sponsored the Mujahideens as a formidable Muslim Jihadist force. The CIA pumped billions of dollars in recruiting radical Muslims from around the Arab and Muslim world with the help and active support of intelligence and security organizations within these countries and for sure with generous payments to these security agencies. Some online reports even goes further and claim that Pakistani Director of Military Operations Brigadier Mian Mohamed Afzal was formally on the payroll of the CIA. This close cooperation remained the core policies of the government of General Zia ul-Haq, Banazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and certainly General Musharaf.

Pakistan with very generous financial support from the CIA and many counties in the Middle East went on an ambitious campaign of establishing “Muslim Madrasas” similar to the Jewish Yeshivas where radical Islam was taught and practiced providing fertile ground for recruiting fighters to join the Mujahideens. The CIA, Arab and Muslim countries not only provided recruits for the war against the Soviet, but also provided weapons and modern weapons (Stinger missiles) denied to Washington’s closest allies.

It seems that the only ones who could not see what was happening and who could not predict the future and the danger of radical Islam are the not so smart senior leadership at the White House and the CIA. One has to wonder how could a murderer and criminal who threw acid water against women in Kabul University could become a prime minister. This is exactly what happens when Gulbuddin Hykmatyar, the opium dealer was the darling of Washington and Pakistan. Of course not to mention Talibans and Osama.

President Musharaf will have a tough time taking control of the many radical “madrasas” that graduate terrorists and Muslim radicals posing a greater danger to the entire Muslim world and pose a greater danger to countries such as the US and the UK. It is not that easy to erase 40 years of radical teachings and promoting jihadist ideology where killing and murder becomes an easy way to heaven and the virgins in waiting.

Pakistan and the world are paying the price for Pakistan’s ill-advised policies of promoting and sponsoring radical Islam and sponsoring and promoting “madrasas”. The only graduate of these schools are terrorists, certainly not teachers and scientist or even physicians. These schools have been manufacturing killers for many years. A presidential decree could not change the production lines of these schools. There are hundereds of thousands of Maulana Abdulaziz and Abdulrasheed Ghazi.

In occupied Palestine, what and which ligitimacy and "shareia" they talk about?

In Israeli Occupied Palestine, there is so much talk these days about “legitimacy” in Arabic this word means “ Share'ia” having replaced the word occupation as the most spoken word among all PA officials. No one talks of the Israeli Occupation!
Of course if one is to take a look at legitimacy, there are very few people and organizations that have any sense of legal and political legitimacy. Even if we accept Oslo as an agreement concluded by persons and institutions with questionable legitimacy (Arafat and the PLO have no legitimacy whatsoever to represent the Palestinian people) then there are one person and one organization we will accept as legitimate. Mahmoud Abbas, as the head of the Palestinian Authority since he won legitimate and open election and the Palestinian people did vote for him and no one can deny him that legitimacy.
The other organization or entity that has equal legitimacy deriving its source from the people is the Palestinian Legislative Council with a Hamas majority and a Fatah minority together with some minor groups and few other individuals.
If we are to accept Abbas legitimacy then we must also accept Hamas as legitimate organization having won the election, with the people voting in the elections, which every observer confirmed, was a fair and open one.
What happened in Gaza was not a revolution or a military take over as many within the PLO or Fatah claim. What happened in Gaza is that Hamas got fed up with a number of key Fatah leaders who had a monopoly on security and who operated the Palestinian Authority security organizations as their own militias. Hamas “tanfethiah” is no more and no less different than Fatah Preventive Security. Both are run and operated by warlords. Fatah, resisting the urgent needs to give up power and authority over security organizations delayed the deal for a unity government for over 6 months, and even when a unity government was formed, Fatah warlord where not about to give up their power and authority over such organization at a time when Gaza was experiencing the worst case of lawlessness and breakdown of law and order. Fatah warlords where not concerns with public order as much as they were concerned with the protection racket and racketeering they were operating in Gaza, fleecing every one. That is why the minister of the interior in the unity government resigned within a short time.
It is so interesting that when Abbas was the prime minister, the US and Israel and many other Arab countries where supporting his demands to have control and authority over all security organizations at a time Arafat was trying to preserve his dictatorial power and preserve his power base for corruptions and incompetence.
It is so ironic that when Abbas became the president, he insisted on and like Arafat before insisted on keeping control over all security organizations, and did not wish to cede such power to the new prime minister. Simply put, security organizations are the source of power and source of corruptions and intimidations and the one who control these security organizations in the man in charge, they represent the only source of power under occupation.
In dismissing the elected government and no one can deny Abbas right to do so, and in announcing the emergency government, Abbas did not draw on legitimacy given to him by the people, instead he drew his claimed legitimacy from a group and from an organization that have no legitimacy whatsoever. Abbas ignoring the power people invested in him and went to the executive committee of the PLO, a bunch of have been and parasites, and got them to vote on dismissing the elected government and announcing the emergency government.
One could not understand why did Abbas go to an organization that ceased to exist and has no presence except on paper, and has only bunch of old hands from the days of Arafat and whose contributions to the cause of liberation is total negligible and who with Arafat formed “Ali Baba and the 40 thieves”?
No Palestinian ever voted for the PLO, and no Palestinian ever voted for the executive committee of the PLO. How can bunch of guys like that have any legitimacy to vote on removing a government that was voted in and elected by the people? My issue here is not with Abbas having the rights and power to select or dismiss the prime minister, he have every right to do so. My issue here is with the executive committee of the PLO that has no legitimacy whatsoever to represent any one or vote on any issue that impact the Palestinian people. They may have the right to vote on distributing the spoils of Oslo and the stolen money but they do not have the rights to speak for the Palestinian people. The executive committee does not represent anyone but itself.
Furthermore, no one appointed Fatah as the guardian of the people and the protector of its interest. Fatah represent its members, most of whom are on the payroll and employees of the authority with more than $118 million in monthly expense. Only Fatah elected officials who were voted in by the people have any legitimacy, all other Fatah organizations do not have any legitimacy.
That is also true of Hamas and all of its security organizations. The people when they voted Hamas in they did not vote for all of its armed organizations. The people voted for certain individuals and did not vote for Hamas security organizations or its service organizations or its militias.
Let us keep legitimacy in perspectives. Only Abbas and those elected members of parliament whether Hamas or Fatah have any legitimacy, all groups or organizations have no legitimacy whatsoever.
By the way, Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi is a thousand if not a million times much better than Dr. Riyad Malki as minister of information. Dr. Faiad did not do such a good job and missed the mark on the portfolio of ministry of information. I think that Dr. Mustafa Bargouthi should be the people choice for a minister of information and the Palestinian envoy to the world.

Time for the Palestinians to admit, armed resistence is no longer an option. Arafat gave that up in Oslo. Israel did not give up anything.

Both Fatah and Hamas continue to talk of armed resistance and military solutions to the Israeli Occupation when both should know better. Hamas continue to believe that its small arms resistance can end the occupation of the West Bank and end the Israeli control over the air, sea, land and even oxygen over Gaza. It is a fools dream.
Fatah trying to cover up for Arafat failure in liberating Palestine is also in a dream of its own making except its armed resistance has nothing to do with liberation and protection of the people against Israel but has every thing to do with political balance of power with Hamas not to mention its needs to keep the spoils brought on by Oslo.
What is so surprising is that both Hamas and Fatah, organizations that should know better and should have read Oslo much better and understood its provision.
One of those provisions signed on by the not so brilliant Palestinian negotiating team in Oslo is that the PLO speaking for an on behalf of the Palestinian people give up any and all forms of resistance to the Israeli military occupation, peaceful and specially armed resistance. The not so smart and not so brilliant team in Oslo gave these options up in return for a lucrative security contract with Israel, while agreeing to Israel absolute right to shoot, kill, murder, destroy any thing and every thing and to pursue its criminal policy of settlements, land theft, ethnic cleansing and of course the ever present and expanding and humiliating check points for the poor and miserable millions of Palestinians who have to travel from one town to the other or who have to attend to their farms and fields. Yet these no so brilliant negotiators made sure they and their buddies in the future Soweto have VIP passes to zip through Israeli checkpoints while millions have to wait for hours and days and face daily humiliations simply to exist.
Arafat gave up the right of both armed and civil resistance long time when he and his brilliant team when they signed Oslo. Hamas should have understood this when it read Oslo, or did it act in the same brilliant way the Palestinian Oslo team when they signed a contract they did not read. Time to sue for the UN to come and take over and manage the place and time for Hamas, Fatah and the entire PLO team to retire and save the Palestinians from their disastrous leadership.
Under Oslo Arafat to ensure he deliver for Israel, Arafat with the help of the US and Israel and with funding coming from all over the world, Arafat set up many security organizations with one of the most infamous security organizations such as the likes of Preventive Security Organizations run and initially operated by two of Fatah and Arafat thugs such as Dahlan and Rajoub. More Palestinians died in jails run by the infamous Preventive Security Organization than those died in Israeli jails. That should tell us something about Arafat, Dahlan and Rajoub and Fatah and how they ran the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas when it signed on to run in elections must have understood the rules of the games and should have understood what was needed of it. However Hamas did not do such a good job as it took over the reign of government. What Hamas should have done is to first address the issue of recognition of Israel and I think its leadership was not up to it and it should have anticipated what the world should expect from it given the fact that the US and Israel labled Hamas as a terrorists organization.
Hamas wanted to have it both ways, it could not do that. Hamas must have addressed its labeling as a terrorist organization and should have addressed the issue of Israel recognition immediately without beating around the bush. The central theme for Hamas, should have been yes, we do recognize Israel but unlike Fatah and Arafat who recognized Israel without any limitations and without any conditions. In fact, Arafat in Oslo accepted Israel not only as an occupying power but also as sovereign power over the Occupied Territories, with rights over the land, water, and people including the decision of who can come in or who can reside within the areas administered by the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas should have learned from the Likud when it came to power based on disagreement and in opposition to Oslo. Hamas was the same place like Likud.
Perhaps it is time for the Palestinians to admit that the time of armed resistance is over and it is time to rethink the strategy. Since Oslo was nothing but a disaster, it is time for the Palestinians to seek help from the UN to come in and take over. The Palestinian people suffered over 40 years of Fatah leadership and it proved disaster, and the Palestinians could not afford another 40 years of a Hamas mess.

Having failed in Libya, Qaddafi may succeed in Africa

Libya’s Moamar Qaddafi is in Accra, Ghana to promote his dream of establishing the United States of Africa becoming the Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Mason, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin and George Washington of Africa. A dream, I am sure many average Africans who have been cheated out of their dreams by their leaders who are nothing more than criminals and thieve the likes of Mobuto, Charles Taylor and Samuel Doe.
The problem is that Qaddafi does not fit the bill of a founding father of modern Africa. After 34 years of absolute dictatorial leadership of Libya, Qaddafi does not have much to show for and Libya, the richest of all African nations based on per capita income (before all of the open theft of the treasury) have nothing to speak about.
Over the last 33 years, Libya’s estimated income from oil amounted to some $ 700 Billions for a country with a population not more than 5 million people. With that kind of money, Libya should be a model state in terms of development of institutions, infrastructure and living standard perhaps equal to or better than Dubai. Yet Libya is less of a developing country that its money could have done and with hardly any outstanding achievements. Qaddafi is solely responsible for the miserable state that is Libya.
Rather than lead his country and people in a fast track of human and physical development, Qaddafi lead his people through decades of irresponsible and reckless leadership.
For the kind of income Libya had for the last year, every Libyan should have a million dollar home, 3 cars, and with hospitals and universities matching that of the US and Western Europe with a network of highways unmatched any where. Instead Libya has one of the worst infrastructures of any country in North Africa, with no renowned institutions of higher learning and any known hospitals and health care facilities.
Qaddafi over the years have lead his people on a wild chase of an ideal democracy that resulted in utter failure, with popular committees running supermarkets and running health ministries. in his people committees running every thing and ruing every thing. Not to mention his forays in arming liberation and revolutionary armies all over the world with the exception of South Africa, thanks to its wise leadership in the person of Nelson Mandela, Qaddafi’s billions of dollars went down the drain similar to his other billions which were stolen by his revolutionary committee and were used by the Qaddafi family as their private funds.
Yes, once in a while Qaddafi makes some sense and he does speak on behalf of the poor and the disfranchised, but his tenure as leader of Libya is nothing but a disaster.
The embargo on Libya caused the Libyan economy more than $ 30 billions in losses to the Libyan economy, not to mention the more than $ 3.6 billions Libya had to pay as compensations to the victims of the Pan Am and UTA crashes.
Not sure if Qaddafi is any wiser now than when he came to power, but he will do his people and Africa lots of good if he simply retire from his long dictatorial leadership position and allow for free elections and an orderly transition to democracy with the building of democratic and accountable, transparent institutions in Libya instead of his one man show with thousands of clowns as chorus.
There are not too many things that I agree with Qaddafi on, however I do agree with his decision to abandon Libya’s nuclear program, which I think was a brilliant idea, and made lots of sense. The money could be used to build decent housing, hospitals and of course to train Libyan nurses instead of importing nurses from Bulgaria.
African is in a big mess, thanks to the greed and criminal behaviors of the colonial Europeans in Africa, where they were responsible for the massacre and murder of tens of millions of people, and responsible for the theft of the entire wealth of many nations, if not the continent. However, Europe and imperialism are not the only cause of misery for Africa. Its entire leadership with very minor exceptions, such as that of South Africa has been nothing but a total disaster directly responsible for the failure of Africa to develop and emerge as a continent where citizens can have some hope and some dreams.
Well, why not, perhaps Qaddafi having failed his own people can do some good in promoting the United States of African and bring hope to millions of disfranchised Africans who have been robbed of their future by incompetent, corrupt and criminal leadership. Perhaps Qaddafi can contribute some $30 millions toward the establishment of the American University of Tangier and establish a $10 million scholarship for African students.

Only a UN Trusteeship can jump start the Arab Peace Plan and save Palestine and the Palestinians.

El-Bireh/ Ramallah/ Agadir:
I returned few days ago from my trip to my birthplace and my hometown of El-Bireh,
after 8 years of absence. I was there when Hamas decided to route Fatah warlords out of Gaza and I was there when Hamas militias went on the rampage doing every thing that is un-Islamic and behaving in the same way the thugs of Fatah behave for a long time. I was also there when the night of the Fatah routing, Fatah militias organized conveys of some 40 vehicles manned by armed masked men, guns at the ready roaming the streets of El-Bireh and Ramallah in a show of force under the protective eyes of the Palestinian Authority security forces. I was also there when Fatah gangs ransacked so many social services institutions and private homes causing millions of dollars of damages to private and public properties.
After the event in Gaza and the irresponsible and reckless behavior of Hamas gangs and militias and the behavior of Fatah gangs and militias and the absence of any responsible role of the government in Ramallah, the deal in Mecca is for sure dead, and if I know the Saudi well, they will not deal any more with a Palestinian leadership that did not live up to its promise in the Holy City of Mecca and did not honor its commitments to King Abdullah who put all of his efforts and prestige to ensure the success of the Mecca Accord.
I am also convinced that Abbas leadership and all of the so called PLO executive behind him are totally unfit and unqualified to lead the Palestinian people to the promise land of freedom and liberty and all of their actions is only to protect and preserve the privileged they had over the last 40 years where they made such a big mess of a noble cause. The same is true of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership, they are all unqualified to lead and have no sense of the big picture and are living in a world of their own making and creation.
The summit conference in Sharm El-Sheik and Israel renewal of target assassination, expanding military operations in both Gaza and the West Bank is a convincing evidence that the PLO and the PA leadership are simply not good enough and not strong enough to deal with or negotiate any fair deal with Israel and the best they can come up with is another Oslo and this time for a provisional Palestinian State with shrinking borders and with much smaller land mass with continued expansions of settlements and Jews Only Roads, with no protection of Palestinians and their properties from Israel and its criminal army. Simply put, the Palestinian people and with the full range of leadership they have are simply not in a position to negotiate any thing that can preserve a future Palestinian state and the only hope for the Palestinian people is for the UN Security Council to incorporate the Arab Peace Plan into an international trusteeship over Occupied Palestine.

Months have passed since the Arabs met in Riyadh to declare their recommitment to the Arab Peace Plan originally submitted and announced in Beirut by then Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah at the Riyadh summit was determined to move forward with peace between the Arabs and Israel with the Arab Peace Plan as the foundation for peace between the Arabs and Israel. The plan calls for a total withdrawal of Israel from the territories it occupied in 67 including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, resolving the Palestinian refugees issues through negotiations in exchange for an open and normal relationships with Israel. With many months past, since the meeting in Riyadh nothing happened, in fact things have taking a turn to the worst.
It is very unlikely that the Arabs on their own will make any headway with Israeli, without some very active support from the permanent members of the UN Security Council and without any upfront commitment from the US that it will not veto any move in the UN Security Council to support and adopt the Arab Peace Plan as the blue print for peace between the Arabs including the Palestinians and Israel.
It does not take a genius to see that left on their own, the Palestinians and the Israelis could never reach peace, and the most they could conclude is the kind of security agreements like that of Oslo where the nature of the military occupation may change but does not end. Oslo is but an example of how security contracts that are not based on political foundations could never achieve permanent peace.
More troublesome is the sad truth that the Palestinians over the last 100 years have not learned much from the conflict with Israel and that 40 years of PLO leadership failed them at liberation and failed to bring about a corrupt free and competent administration under occupation and proved they are simply unfit and not ready to run and manage their own free state. The internal conflicts between Hamas and Fatah that caused the death and injuries of hundreds and destructions of untold private and public property are but a proof of this failure.
The only way to save the Palestinians from themselves and bring about a credible peace, not a process, with Israel is for the Arabs to take their case and their peace plan to the UN Security Council and get a jump start on the way toward peace by securing a unanimous vote for the peace plan and of course without the ever expected veto from the US. The UN Security Council resolution must have implementing power and dates and should not be left to Israel to determine if it chose to accept it.
The UN Security Council resolution should include a provision to place the Palestinian Occupied Territories under a UN Security Council Trusteeship for an interim period of 5 years.
The interim period will arrange for an orderly and quick exist and ending of Israeli military occupations, bring about a disarming of all Palestinian factions including those of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and President Abbas own militia and of course disarm all Israeli armed settlers. The interim period allows for the people to catch their breath for 40 years from both Israeli military occupation and living under the management and administration of a failed Palestinian Authority. The UN Trusteeship takes over from both the Israelis and the Palestinians total management and administration of the territories including security for both Palestinians and Israelis living in the territories. Since Jerusalem is a subject of great contentions,
East Jerusalem should be included as part of the trusteeship with open and full access to all without any restriction to access to holy places.
The interim period will bring an end to one of the longest military and illegal occupation in modern history, allow the Palestinian to live a normal life without the ever present Israeli military occupation and the hundreds of military checkpoints and of course it brings an end to the ever expansions of illegal settlements.
The UN Trusteeship allows the Palestinians under the trusteeship and in the Diaspora to put their own house in order without having to submit to the will of armed militias and failed, corrupt and incompetent organizations and institutions of both the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. The UN Trusteeship will allow for the emergence of leaderships that has the mandate to negotiate and finalize a full peace with Israel including the issue of the refugees. Only a UN Trusteeship can jump start the Arab Peace Plan and save Palestine and the Palestinians.

Yes to an international security force in Occupied Palestine, but not for the reasons Abbas and Abed-Rabbou talk about!

These days and in a recent visit to Paris, Mahmoud Abbas head of the Palestinian Authority floated the idea of having an international security force in Gaza. Yaser Abed Rabbou, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the PLO, which has no legitimacy whatsoever, floated the same idea in an interview on Al-Jazeera. The problem is that the two floated different reasons and different objectives for the international force.
The PLO and all of its many committees and the much-touted “institutions” have lost all legitimacies long time and do not represent anyone but the executives themselves and the parasite they are. If one is to evaluate the performance of the PLO and its leadership (Shukairi, Arafat and Abbas) over the last 40 years it has been nothing short of a total disaster presiding over the self-destruction for the Palestinian cause.
President Abbas floated the idea of an international security force under the pretence of providing the Palestinians with the kind of security they need to undertake a new and free election. Abed Rabbou, on the other hand gave the explanation that the international security force in Gaza is to provide protection from the Israelis. Both Abbas and Abed Rabbou are much less forthcoming with the their reasons and trying to pull a fast one on the eyes of the Palestinians. No one can believe what comes from Ramallah or Gaza.
Both Abbas and Abed Rabbou reasons have nothing to do with the elections and have nothing to do with protecting the Palestinians of Gaza from the daily attacks by Israel. The international security force has every thing to do with the need to bring back Fatah warlords to Gaza to carry on with its reckless behavior and it has every thing to do with damage control after Hamas routed Fatah security organizations and gangs and their warlords and it has everything to do with brining Gaza back under the control of Ramallah. The PLO and the PA have never behaved or acted in the best interest of the people, always and without fails all decisions and actions taken were and are in support the homogeneity of the PLO and its defunct organizations and institutions and it has every thing to do with making sure Fatah keeps its security contract with Israel. Oslo has nothing to do with the people under occupation and has nothing to do with liberating the people and ending the occupation, it has every thing to do with Arafat and his self preservation after his disaster siding with his late friend, the criminal Saddam.
I have called for an international security force for a long time, back in 1988 and have posted a number of articles on this blog in support of such an international security force under an international trustee ship. Yes, the Palestinian people more than ever need a trusteeship and they do need an international security force to protect them from Israel and protect them from the PLO, PA, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, organizations and leadership that are leading the Palestinians to self destruction and have done nothing so far in the best interest of the Palestinians and all decisions made have every thing to do with preserving the privileges of the leadership. If in fact the leadership of these organizations did represent and acted in the best interest of the Palestinians people, we will not have an Oslo, and we will not have a PA that is riddle with corruption and incompetence and we will not have the many lose militias and armed gangs, warlords, and we will not have that many Israeli informers who pin point targets for Israeli rockets and we will not have the Fatah-Hamas mess we have now.
An international security force will be the best thing that can happen to the Palestinians of course in conjunction with a trusteeship to take over the day-to-day administration of the Occupied Territories from the Fatah’s PA in the West Bank and from Hamas in Gaza. The international trusteeship supported by an international security force is to take over from the Israeli Occupation and take over the total administration of the territories from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority and should have the mandate to disarm All security and paramilitary organizations, including all PA security forces, Fatah Preventive Security Forces, Fatah paramilitary and militias, Hamas militias, Islamic Jihad militias, tribal militias and the very private militias of some of Fatah warlords. Of course disarming all Jewish settlers will have to go hand in hand with disarming the Palestinians.
Perhaps after 5 years of total control by the trusteeship, then and only then can the Palestinians have the opportunities to have a free election without the ever present and intimidating forces of Fatah and the PLO and without the presence of armed Islamic movements? The international security force can and for once free Palestinians from Jewish Occupation and free them of the PLO, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, organizations and leadership that have been nothing but a disaster.