HE WAS A TERRORIST TOO :

A Mandela for the Palestinians (Charles Glass, 15th July 2002, New Statesman)

Born in June 1959 in the village of Kafr Kubr near Ramallah, [Marwan Barghouti] was a street activist from his early teens. He took his high school diploma while in an Israeli prison and his many terms in detention while at Bir Zeit University caused him to take 11 years to earn a degree in history and political science. By 1987, the year of the first uprising, or intifada, against Israeli occupation, he had been deported to Jordan. Two years later, Fatah appointed him as the youngest-ever member of its revolutionary council.

In 1994, when he and other deportees came home under the Oslo accords, Barghouti became an enthusiastic advocate of that peace process, urging Israelis and Palestinians to embrace a new era of co-operation. But soon he was speaking against the Israelis for grabbing more Palestinian land for their settlements and criticising Arafat's government for corruption and autocracy.

I don't know about Barghouti, but when the next deal is struck the Palestinian signatory will have been a terrorist. The great advantage of President Bush's speech, saying that we wouldn't deal with Palestinians who are tainted by terror, is that it may allow us to determine which of them is acceptable and which isn't. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 19, 2002 7:56 AM