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Abbas, Barghouti and Palestinian elections

The Scholar

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Jan 4, 2004
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Folks:

Just thought I would engage those that have an interest in Middle East politics.

Mohammed Dahlan announced that he would not stand as a candidate for the January 9th elections in the Palestinian territories. He is going to back Mahmoud Abbas. A few others that had considered running seem to be reconsidering.

This means that the only other viable candidate is Marwan Barghouti. He is currently in an Israeli prison. However, his popularity has never waned. In fact, it has often been said that it was Yasser Arafat or someone in his camp that tipped off the Israelis on where to find Mr. Barghouti; thus allowing him to be captured, put on trial and be convicted.

There is currently no law that would prevent Mr. Barghouti from standing as a candidate for elections. He would stand a real chance of victory due to his enormous popularity among the ordinary people. Furthermore, he is highly regarded by the militants to the point where they often will follow his lead.

So, a few questions:

1. Should Mr. Barghouti stand as a candidate for Palestininan President and win; it would mean that Israel would be under enormous pressure to release him so that he could fullfil his duties as the elected President. Since Israel has stated it would not budge on releasing him, would the United States intervene?

2. Do you believe Mr. Barghouti capable of reining in the militants and having them agree to a ceasefire and being able to enforce it while entering into negotiations with Israel on the Gaza pull-out?

3. Should Mahmoud Abbas win, whether Mr. Barghouti runs or not, do you believe that Mr. Abbas is able to command the respect of the militants and get them to work with him on a ceasefire and be able to enforce it?

Regards.
 

onthebottom

Never Been Justly Banned
Jan 10, 2002
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Just what the Palestinians need at this critical junction, the election of a serving criminal? I think that would provide all the ammo needed to those that bash the Palestinians to characterize the cause as unworthy.

OTB
 

slowandeasy

Why am I here?
May 4, 2003
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GTA
Recipe for Disaster

Take one piece of land, add groups of people who don't like each other...give one side three truck loads of weapons and the other side two truck loads of weapons... add a pinch of religious fanatics a dash of terror, a scoop of state sponsored terror, a world divided on how to resolve the conflict and....

take a guy out of the prison of one side to lead the other side....
try to settle a decade or even century old problem....

I don't have a good solution, and I don't know anything about Mr. Barghouti but unless he is the second coming of one Mr. Mhatma Ghandi, I don't think that he is a good candidate to resolve the problems facing his people.
 

onthebottom

Never Been Justly Banned
Jan 10, 2002
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Lets hope so.

OTB
 

strange1

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Mar 14, 2004
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Drunken Master said:
I think the real question, will an election even take place? It will involve a substantial pullout from the Israeli army...
I don't know if a pullout is needed, as long as the Israelis are commited to assisting in an orderly election. The only negative their presence would have is it would help to prevent coercive tactics by militants and give an excuse for the militants to claim that whoever wins is an israeli/american puppet.

I found what the charges were at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Barghouti.html and more detail at
http://www.jcpa.org/art/brief1-16.htm
with "Despite Barghouti's repeated claim that he only seeks with the intifada to "end the occupation" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he told The New Yorker on July 9, 2001, that if he received a 100% withdrawal of Israel, he would still seek "bigger things": namely, "one state for all the peoples." In short, he does not seek coexistence with Israel."

and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth...ael_and_the_palestinians/profiles/1473585.stm
where they state "The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade possibly sealed his fate when it issued a statement in 2002 claiming him as their leader." This I found interresting that the brits don't usually back Israel. They still think he'd be a good choice for leader.

For balance, I found this
http://www.freebarghouti.org/case.html
A long read, mostly on why he shouldn't be arrested or charged but doesn't discuss whether or not he did or did not do what he was accused of.

Also http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/people/117.shtml gives a bunch of links.
 

scouser1

Well-known member
Dec 7, 2001
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there is a whole theory that says that the Barghouti capture and imprisonement was completely staged by the Israelis, one can look at the fact that when the Israelis wanted someone they simply had a missile land on them, but they went to the trouble of arresting this guy and put him on trial.

The theory states that the Israelis figure this is one guy they can negotiate with and will release him back to the Palestinians where he will be proclaimed a Mandela like figure and become president.
 

Cinema Face

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Mar 1, 2003
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Abbas seems like a resonable guy and the best choice. Unfortunately, it's a culture of violence that's not likely to change anytime soon.

Any moderate will most likely be marked for death by the radicals.

It's a no win regardless of who gets in.
 
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