Monday, October 2, 2006

Paralysis of the Palestinian 'Authority': What's to be done?

Rima Merriman, The Electronic Intifada, 2 October 2006

"The paralysis of the present Palestinian Authority has simply highlighted to the world and to the Palestinians themselves, who are persistently in denial about this, the real Wizard-of-Oz nature of their Authority and public institutions.

For over a decade now, since the Oslo Agreement signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1993, the Palestinians, along with much of the world, have been laboring under a couple of misapprehensions. One is that, with Oslo, Israel had at long last recognized their aspirations, even if only partially. The other is that their leaders, as embodied by the presidency and the government that arose, had the wherewithal to move them towards a full-fledged Palestinian state on the 1967 borders in the face of Israel's grand plans and intentions in the region. It's the classic syndrome of desperate people believing what they want to believe.

The powers of the Wizard of Oz, in the well-known American novel by that name, are revealed at the end to be special effects. In spite of the Wizard's connection with the Good Witch of the North, he turns out to be a wizened old man with neither the power nor skill to provide anyone with brains, courage or heart - let alone a munchkin state."

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