One More of America's Palestinians Speaks

The Looming Challenges

Palestine and Peace
By HANAN ASHRAWI
CounterPunch

"......When there is a vacuum in any conflict, particularly a political vacuum, violence takes over and fills that vacuum. Extremism fills that vacuum. And this is exactly what happened given the fact that since the year 2000, there has been no peace process, the U.S. has kept its distance [and] there was no genuine intervention in order to re-legitimize peace. So, keeping one's distance is certainly quite counterproductive if not destructive. In cases of conflict, you do need the political will to intervene effectively [she is urging direct U.S. involvement; since it worked so well between 1993-2000??].......

....And when it comes to the Palestinians, you have to talk to all Palestinian interlocutors-those who were chosen by the Palestinian people. And fortunately right now, we all know that the PLO is the party in power to negotiate, and the presidency has the mandate to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. There is no reason not to engage.[What PLO is she talking about? The one that appoints its own fossilized "leaders" as "representatives" of the Palestinians? No one has authorized these people to negotiate on their behalf. Of course she is behind the Usraeli stooge Abbas since he will do America's bidding.].......

There is, of course, the Arab initiative that is ready. Again, it may not be perfect, but it is there. It's a comprehensive approach......

.....And returning to UN resolutions, for the first time, Israel and the U.S. had to go to the UN and ask for a UN resolution and at the same time, they asked for international troops on the ground. All these are precedents, and these have to be understood in context again. They can be in many ways not a blueprint but influences or indicators for how to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli issue [she wants a U.S.-imposed military solution with an "international troops" cover and the UN fig leaf.].....

The latest elections prove that Palestinian society is extremely polarized. And I am saying this as [Palestinian Finance Minister] Salam [Fayyad] and I are in the Third Way, as you know. Salam was here last week. But the polarization was very clear between Fateh and Hamas, between people who had militias, people who had extreme ideologies and so on. The third alternative, including the old traditional left, did not make it numerically significant. We may be qualitatively significant but quantitatively certainly not that decisive.[she is not interested in a culture and ideology of resistance, to her this is "extremism;" the U.S. calls it extremism and terror, so does she (and the other U.S. stooge Fayyad)].....

....Let's put together a coalition of the willing for peace this time and see whether we can make a difference. So what works? Rapid, bold, decisive steps straight into permanent status issues that we all know; we do not need to reinvent the wheel. We do not have much time......

....Now how would this government end? How long will it last? How would it end? It depends on other factors, but if there is agreement, this government could be in preparation for elections. Elections cannot take place without consensus, without the agreement of all parties involved, particularly Hamas and Fateh. So maybe between now and the end of the year, there can be elections if all parties are convinced that early elections can work or it can be a preparation for a new type of government which we had advocated earlier: a government of professional, independent nationalists.....[she is advocating the U.S. formula of "government" of technocrats, like her buddy World-Bank-Fayyad and others who were created by and owe their survival to various western NGOs]....

The security forces cannot be political forces, they must be depoliticized and they must not be engaged in anything financial. They must be reformed in terms also of their numbers. The militias have to be disbanded, including the executive force. I do not see the executive force as a legitimate security service. It is a militia and it was given the title of a security force. All illegal weapons must be collected.The use of weapons must be regulated, particularly in Gaza.[she is advocating the Usraeli definition of "security services." She wants Palestinian puppet forces to control Palestinians and to disarm and end the resistance. According to her, they shouldn't be "politicized," meaning intended for resistance]....

The National Security Council [the one headed by Dahlan] has to be a credible and effective council and not, again, a combination of power basis and leaders. Lawlessness and kidnappings have to end.....

.....The Hamas political agenda has really undergone some serious transformations. I don't know if you're aware of it, but they have accepted the two-state solution. They've accepted the long term period of quiet and ceasefire. They have accepted all these things. They recognized signed agreements, Arab legitimacy international legitimacy and so on. All the things we were asking them to do, they have done......"