Ayoon wa Azan (Playing With Fire)

Jihad Al Khazen     Al-Hayat     2003/09/4

Yasser Arafat and Jibril Rajoub have formed a team versus Mahmoud Abbas and Mohamad Dahlan.  

Had it been a volleyball game on the beach between two teams, it would have been easy. But these two teams are dealing, and I wouldn't want to say playing, with the Palestinian cause, and the suffering and bloodshed that led the Palestinians to this rock bottom.   

Personally, I hold Arafat alone responsible for this confrontation, and believe that Abbas, Dahlan and Rajoub are innocent. Arafat was the one who objected to appointing Abbas as Prime Minister, not to mention that he set obstacles to this process and is still trying to destroy it without suggesting any other alternative, but himself; he also refuses to admit that he is not welcome in the current equation.

Arafat appointed Jibril Rajoub to be his National Security Advisor, although he is aware of the old but ongoing disagreement between the latter and Mohamad Dahlan. Moreover, this appointment is strange because Arafat himself "attacked" Jibril Rajoub by evicting him from the position of head of preventive security in the West Bank when he thought he was competing with him over the Authority. Now that the competition involves both Abbas and Dahlan, he brought Rajoub back to a leadership position, hoping he would stand in their way.

This is not politics, it's playing with fire, while the Palestinian cause is being shattered by Ariel Sharon's gang, with U.S. support.

I shall not add anything more about Arafat, as everyone is attacking him already. But I what I did mention are pure Palestinian facts, because I could not get past them. Then I stopped because people like war criminal Shaul Mofaz are attacking President Arafat, and I refuse to agree with them on anything whatsoever.

Mohamad Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub are friends of mine, and I have no problem with any of them; I am familiar with the personal conflict between them, and I hope that it will not be used to destroy what is left of the cause they worked for and devoted all their life to.

I called Rajoub to ask him about the situation in general and his in particular. He told me that Arafat had contacted him considering that he is part of the Palestinian scene, and was not eschewing responsibility. He set conditions for a possible cooperation, which Arafat agreed to, such as the known terms, and not getting involved or forced into a battle with Abbas. According to these terms, the Palestinian President should also get ready to cleanse the security bodies and restructure them according to objective standards.

Rajoub asserted that if "I'm not a positive element, then I will not keep this position." He admitted that he had a problem in dealing with Mohamad Dahlan, but that he would not veto him or anybody else.

Jibril said: "You have my word of honor, as I respect myself and know the limits of my work; the problem between Mohamad Dahlan and myself shall not make me rule myself out for his sake, because what matters is the cause…"

He also believes that Abbas is a good, honest, fair and dignified person (I'm quoting) and that Dahlan's problem is with Fatah, not with him personally.

Jibril Rajoub hoped that Ahmad Qurei's mediation between Abbas and Arafat would succeed, but he was not optimistic about it. When I called Abbas, he seemed even less optimistic, as he said that this mediation was 18 months old and had not given any results yet; he added that there was an ongoing discussion regarding a committee, which he said he opposed because he thought it was pointless.

I told the Palestinian Premier that I hoped the situation with Arafat would not lead to "nail biting," and he replied: "I leave it to the hands of the Legislative Council today, and hope it will settle the matter if it does not give its vote of confidence, and I will be thankful for that."

Abbas was not comfortable either with receiving such American support; I told him that this back up was stupid and just like a "kiss of death." He replied that they really caused him prejudice among the Palestinians by lauding him so much, and added that he had asked them to stop doing that, because "love can kill."

I found out that Abbas was alert, and so were Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. He said that the truce was "meant to serve the cause as well as everyone's interest, but the suicide operation in Jerusalem destroyed everything we had."

I asked him what the solution was, and he replied that it was in their hands, meaning in the Islamic resistance factions' hands, as they had blocked the way and ought to reopen it themselves. As for the future, he said it was unknown.

Abbas reminded me that the suicide operation had aborted an agreement he had reached with the Israelis for a withdrawal from four other Palestinian cities and to stop hunting down the wanted men, which would have served the Islamic factions primarily. He added that the operation only led the Israelis to kill two to three militants every day. Hence, "the good man, the prince, Ismail Abu Shanab" was killed, and the outside world doesn't care, considering that the balance of power is against the Palestinians.

Abbas hoped that Hamas and Al Jihad wouldn't retaliate to the Israeli attacks, as "this would lead to the greatest catastrophe."

I realized that the only "positive" point of my conversation with the Prime Minister was what he said about Jibril Rajoub, when he explained that he welcomed him in any position appointed by Arafat, and added that the man was a good person to whom he wished all the best because he had no problem with him.

Still, there are other problems, one bigger than the other, such as that between Arafat and Rajoub on one hand, and Abbas and Dahlan on the other. Another problem also lies in the Islamic factions' stance, as Hamas will retaliate to the assassination of Abu Shanab. Moreover, the ongoing Israeli crimes make it impossible for the resistance not to react to the murder of its militants; there is also the problem of the American slackness or absence, and silence over Israel's crimes, not to mention the Arab disability that has almost reached the level of handicap.

However, now that I gave a dark image of the situation, I shall close with something better about the Egyptians, who are extremely active in trying to restore calm. In the past few days, they hosted representatives of all the concerned factions, and they are in contact with the Americans and Israelis hoping to achieve a miracle, although we have long past the era of miracles.