Last week major Arabic newspapers such as Asharqalwsat and Alquds Alarabi carried front line news that Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority under Israeli Occupation have dispatch his long time friend and confidant, the smart, brilliant and specially gifted Ahmed Qurai (Abu Ala) to negotiate yet another secret deal with Israel.
Of course any one familiar with the secret negotiations in Oslo lead by our friend Ahmed Qurai and orchestrated by the late Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas can only wonder why does Abbas send again, some one like Abu Ala to negotiate for an on behalf of the Palestinians. If Oslo1 was a partial sell out by the axis of incompetence, corruption and failed leadership (Arafat, Abbas and Qurai) one does not need to wonder what the rest of the story will be.
At the heights of the First Intifada, which Arafat with all of his no so smart and not so intelligent (Mokhabarat and Estekhbbarat) services, never knew was coming, Israel was desperate to end this civil uprising that pitted a Palestinian stone with an Israeli tank shell and that was on the news every day. Israel was also desperate to get a formal recognition, not simply an announcement from Arafat and his PLO like that in 1988, but a formally signed and sealed recognition for its existence, legitimacy and for its continued control of the land and of course for its definition that the land it occupied is” disputed territories” but not occupied. A big difference that our team of brilliant leaders failed to see.
Israel knew it was not getting ahead with the team in Washington lead by Dr. Haider Abdul-Shafi, a truly brilliant man with commitment and integrity unmatched any where in Palestine for the last 100 years. Dr. Abdul-Shafi main objective was to bring an end to the Israeli Military Occupation and address and bring about a final resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Arafat not trusting in Dr. Haider Abdul-Shafi dispatched non other than Dr. Nabil Sha’ath to keep an eye on the negotiating team lest they succeed and bring about an end to the occupation and put Arafat and his PLO out of business.
Israel and its intelligence services knew very well the Palestinian trio of Arafat-Abbas –Qurai. It knew them from the days in Beirut, and it knew them very well from the days of Tunis, and it knew what they ate, drank and whom they slept with (Arafat preferred young Romanian boys). In fact Israel had one of its key agent in the office of the Palestinian Ambassador to Tunis, Hakam Bal’awi, a close confident of Arafat and a conduit for many of the exchange of messages. It should be noted that Bala’awi returned to a heroes welcome when Israel gave him the permission to return. Willy Brandt, the German Chancellor had to resign because one of his staff member in the Chancellery was an East German spy. Of course we can see the difference between “them and us”.
Israel knew Arafat and his team were desperate having sided with Saddam Hussein and supported the Iraqi Occupation of Kuwait. Arafat not only publicly supported the criminal Saddam but contributed $50 millions toward the invasion and of course all at the expense of over 350,000 Palestinians living in Kuwait. The Palestinians should have put Arafat on trial and hanged him for his betrayal of hundreds of thousands destroying their lives and causing them to lose over $14 billions in personal and business assets.
Israel was aware of this and was aware that Arafat and his PLO needed an uplift and needed something to save it after its disastrous siding with Saddam and the way to do it, is to entice Arafat and his team to enter into secrete negotiations that can save Arafat “ass” and can save his failing and much discredit PLO.
Oslo negotiated by the not so brilliant team of Arafat, Abbas and Qurai, has nothing to do with ending the Occupation. It has every thing to do with mutual recognition of Israel by Arafat and his PLO and Israel recognition of the PLO (TOZZ). All remain the same.
While Israel got what it wanted in terms of legitimacy around the Muslim and Arab world opening the doors for Israel from Indonesia to Morocco, Arafat got his Palestinian Authority and got himself and his PLO and Fatah a permanent job of providing security for the IDF and armed settlers, and of course with billions of dollars going to the personal pockets of Arafat and his PA.
While Israel knew Arafat very well, he in turn knew the Palestinians very well too, especially all those parasites around him. He knew them well and he was ready as he was for the last 40 years to buy them off. He knew every one has a price, he knew every one of his lieutenants and advisors have a weakness for money, women and prestige. He knew how to get their support for his Oslo. We can see it on the ground in Ramallah. Very expensive homes in the millions of dollars, expensive cars, (khadam and hasham), even the servants of these parasites can go out to the streets and tell the people what to do, giving true meaning to the Arabic saying (kalb El-Sheik, Sheik).
Meanwhile and under Oslo, the Israeli Occupation continues as it is and has been for the last 40 years. Israel continued with its policies of land confiscation for expanding settlements, it continued with and in fact increased its squeeze on the Palestinians adding more and more checkpoints. It gave armed settlers total control of the entire city of Hebron and recently it created a network of roads “ FOR JEWS ONLY’. Of course the not so brilliant Qurai did not bother to discuss the issues of water resources, ending the settlement expansions, giving authority over residency to the PA just to mention few.
Since Oslo was nothing more than a security contract between Israel and the PLO/Fatah, control of the many and different security agencies became of much interest and competition between Arafat and his cohorts. Giving a full meaning to the phrase of “ who control the security not only control the Palestinian population (mandatory under Oslo) but can also collect on payments from Israel and the international community”.
Now Mr. Abbas could not find another less competent and corrupt person other than Mr. Ahmed Qurai to dispatch and start another round of secret negotiations with Israel. Of course this is the same man who squandered billions of dollars while running SAMED Industries (I am sure many of you remember the great Palestinian enterprise with businesses from Uganda to Latin America to the corner stores in the ghettos of the US cities) Billions of dollars simply disappeared under his management and of course he was never held accountable for any of the loses and millions stolen.
He is also the man who did simply felt he did not need professional legal and strategic team to help in the negotiations relying on his stupidity, ignorance and “ charm” to win concessions from Israel. This is the same man who made and is making a killing out of lands he knew as negotiator will be under Palestinian jurisdiction, becoming the largest single developer under occupation. He is also the same man, whose family enterprises made a killing out of selling the cement to Israel to help toward building the Apartheid Wall.
One only need to read the many books and articles written on Oslo, and one need to read Uri Savir accounts of the 1,100 days that lead to the “compromise” in Oslo, where Arafat and his PLO secured a long term security contract while Israel kept all it had in land, not to mention the control over who can come and who can stay.
It is very difficult to read into the minds of those who are in charge among the Palestinians. It is even more difficult to understand why Mahmoud Abbas want to send an idiot to go back and negotiate away what he failed to do in the first place.
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