WHAT IS HE WAITING FOR


Hichem KAROUI
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Hichem KAROUI
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2002-07-03T13:34:00Z
2002-07-03T13:34:00Z
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WHAT IS HE WAITING FOR?

 

 

By Hichem Karoui (in Paris)

 

 

 DATE \@ "MMMM d, yyyy" July 3, 2002

 

           

            Of
course Arafat must go!

 Mr. Bush is right. The Palestinian leader has
failed in his mission. He could neither achieve peace with the Israelis, nor
persuade his people of stopping resistance and suicidal bombings! So, what is
he good for?

 And so has Sharon to do too! That has been omitted
in Bush’s speech, but the President meant it- no doubt- although nobody has a
clue about it!

 Mr. Bush is not blind. He has certainly asked
himself:

 Does anyone pretend that Sharon has achieved
a better record than Arafat? Indeed, the Israeli leader escaped momentously a
trial for war crimes. But it is not the end of the affair. Bush, who is
habitually so concerned with the Human Rights issues everywhere in the world,
could not ignore it!  How would the
American President pay no heed to so many ONG willing with such a delight to
relay on the lawsuit against Sharon? Just give them time. Arafat has perhaps
failed as a future Statesman, but Sharon in return has succeeded as a butcher.
Bush would have to blame the writer of his speech. Maybe had he done so
already! For as you can observe, it did not even dawn on the writer that these
two points are paradoxical! You cannot have a Palestinian Statesman (or more
precisely future statesman) while allowing the “butcher” on the other side to
go wild and free with killings!  That’s
awful! You can still pretend that he is just reacting to the suicide bombings,
but his own “resume” as a career-butcher proves that he has always waited for
the opportunity to make his bloody services higher in the stock market of
Israeli values.

             OK! Everybody will tell you that Arafat has reached the age of an
honorable retirement. Any reasonable man would do that if he were in Arafat’s
shoes. Why should one cling to power and behave like a crank, if he is deemed
to be the obstacle to peace? Mr. Bush is aware of that. He had been briefed
just before the famous speech about the state of Arafat’s health. Mr. Tenet,
the CIA boss, was likely the man who informed the President about the
progressive deterioration of Arafat’s mental faculties!

 The report has been published in the Italian
press since Friday and widespread on the internet. It was the weekly Panorama,
owned by the Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, who took the lead telling the
readers about Arafat’s memory loss, spontaneous blackouts and other
concentration problems! That was a scoop! Panorama did not however
publish the report about Sharon’s mental state in the same time, as it was
expected! The journalist who got that special report from Sharon’s own
physician could neither leave Israel nor send his story to Panorama! He
is still missing! Trouble is that not only the Israelis pretend that they never
saw him, but his own boss at Panorama denies that such a person have
ever worked for him!

            Nonetheless,
Mr. Bush knows all these tricks. He wouldn’t let those little jerks of the
press embark him on some adventurous declarations on behalf of their word!
None! It is on Mr. Powell that he relied. And the Foreign Affairs Secretary who
knows his new job even better than the former (the military that is!) was well
the man who informed the President that the Arab leaders did not actually mind
having Arafat removed! That’s exactly what he told The Times of London
too. Thus it is to satisfy the Arab friends and for their delight that Mr. Bush
kicked Arafat out of the future! Anyway, what is the future of an old man?

That’s why
Arafat should give up! Indubitably, History will recall him as the only Arab
leader who abdicated from power at the summit of a state that does not even
exist! Arab leaders are very die-hard, it is not a secret. Mr. Bush is thus
giving Arafat a golden opportunity that has never been offered to another Arab
leader (with the exclusion of Saddam!): to quit power before being forced to!
Willingly, unwillingly, that does not matter! The point is that Bush has not
ruled out a military intervention, if necessary! That is quite amazing, some of
you would say!

Not at all. As negligible
quantity as the PA could sound, if compared to the USA, Washington would send
the “boys” out to bring Arafat to his knees, if he refuses to obey!

Nasty affair!

Why so? And
where did Tsahal go then? Why is it not capable of doing the job for Mr.
Bush?

You feel here
that Sharon would not forgive Bush for this blunder! What happened to this
world? Sending the US army against that old rebel when Tsahal is already
there strangling him and counting his pulsations and controlling his breath?

 By the way, how old is Sharon?

That’s
definitely not the point! Sharon could be 190 years old, if he wants. Nobody
would consider that as a flaw. For a very simple reason: all the Israeli
leaders wish to resemble the biblical patriarchs! Which is not the wish of the
Muslim leaders. If the latter want to follow the tradition of the prophet (peace
be upon him) they should die at 60, like him! This is not a joke. It is the
ISRAELI WISH!

 Indeed, if a veritable, a true and honest
peace deal depends only upon Arafat’s departure, then he must go.

 What if it depends on Sharon’s own departure,
as the majority of the Arabs believe? Answer: It is not the Arabs that dictate
to the Israelis what they ought or ought not to do with their leaders! Even if
the Arabs are much more numerous than the Israelis, since they have no democracy,
they should shut up and watch how a Prime Minister is made in Israel! Once he
is up there in power, even the mighty Tsahal would not be capable of getting
rid of him, although this is the tradition in some Arab countries!

 Did you ask why?

Well. It is
quite simple. Why should the Israeli army undertake a Coup against one of its
generals? Who is Sharon? And who was Barak? And Rabin?

Israel is a
democracy: that’s why generals rule it!

 As to Arafat, had he not always sacrificed
his private life for the sake of the cause? Well, Today one more time, he
should prove that he still knows how to listen to the voice of his people.

 It is well his people, represented by Mr.
Bush and Sharon who entreated him to go away!

So, what is he
waiting for?

 

 See Hichem Karoui home page:

 http://www.hichemkaroui.com/