November 14, 2004

BIRTH OF AN ARAB DEMOCRACY:


Vote for Successor to Arafat Planned: Palestinian Authority prime minister says a general election will be held before Jan. 9, in accordance with the law. (Laura King, November 14, 2004, LA Times)

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei promised Saturday that Palestinians would hold a general election for a new president within 60 days, as mandated by law.

"The presidential elections will be held before Jan. 9," Korei told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where longtime leader Yasser Arafat was buried Friday at a funeral thronged by a chaotic crush of mourners.

Korei said the date for balloting would be set in a meeting by the Palestinian leadership.


Remember all that guff about Arab Muslims being incapable of democracy? Nevermind.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 14, 2004 9:02 AM
Comments

Do you think that the vote for a successor to Arafat will be as clean and orderly as the funeral to bury him was.

Posted by: AllenS at November 14, 2004 9:12 AM

How about a contest OJ: whoever can guess the proportion of palesinian presidential candidates who are still alive on election day wins.

Posted by: some random person at November 14, 2004 9:14 AM

Allen:

Probably almost exactly. He's in the ground.

Posted by: oj at November 14, 2004 9:15 AM

random:

The Israelis aren't likely to assassinate political guys, are they?

Posted by: oj at November 14, 2004 9:44 AM

The Israelis won't be the ones doing the killing. The various factions will happily butcher each other, along with any of those pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders who get in the way(pace Clemenza).

You cannot seriously believe that if Hamas fails to win the general election that they will stand idly by and play loyal opposition.

Posted by: Bart at November 14, 2004 10:51 AM

They haven't.

Posted by: oj at November 14, 2004 10:56 AM

Hurry up and get the contest started, because it won't be fun if they're all already dead:
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/501473.html

Posted by: some random person at November 14, 2004 12:05 PM

Recall that the Palestinians had an election in '96, with Arafat running against a token female candidate, then he called off subsequent elections. I wouldn't bet on them doing any better this time.

Posted by: PapayaSF at November 14, 2004 2:12 PM

It's nuts to think that Muslims can't be democrats, but it's equally nuts to think that Islam has some special affinity for democracy. It doesn't. Which branch of Islam we hate changes depending on who's ticked us off most recently. In the '80s we hate the Shia and loved the Sunni, in the '90s we hated the Sunnis and loved the Wahhabis and in the Oughts we hate the Wahhabi and love the Shia.

Posted by: David Cohen at November 14, 2004 2:38 PM

The civil war is likely to come first. Militants already attacked Mahmoud Abbas today in Gaza.

Posted by: Joe at November 14, 2004 4:26 PM

We enabled the Shi'a Revolution in Iran until Khomeini hijacked it.

Posted by: oj at November 14, 2004 4:49 PM

Just another case of shia loves me, shia loves me not....

Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 14, 2004 5:05 PM

OJ: "We" in that case was Jimmy Carter. Whatever his reasoning (being charitable), I'm not convinced that it was a strategic gamble for the long-term benefit of the United States.

Posted by: David Cohen at November 14, 2004 6:44 PM

David:

You can't use we and then disown we.

Posted by: oj at November 14, 2004 7:26 PM
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