November 13, 2004

MARWAN TIME:

Jailed Palestinian wants to succeed Arafat (AP, 11/13/04)

Imprisoned uprising leader Marwan Barghouti has decided to run for president in upcoming Palestinian elections, a source close to the popular politician said Saturday.

Barghouti, widely seen as the strongest candidate to replace Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, will only bow out of the race if his ruling Fatah movement selects a different candidate in internal voting, the source said on condition of anonymity. That is unlikely as Fatah is not expected to hold a primary.


Presumably the Israeli imprisonment of Mr Barghouti was intended to give him the legitimacy to replace Arafat, in which case Mr. Sharon can win points by "reluctantly" releasing him

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 13, 2004 10:13 AM
Comments

Presumably the imprisonment of Barghouti is because he's a terrorist leader of the Al-Asqa Martyr's brigade. If he's let out, his main role will probably be to try to kill Israelis.

Posted by: Brandon at November 13, 2004 11:58 AM

The Palestinians, pragmatic to a fault, are going to push this one real hard---and why not?---since it's such a sure-fire way to put intense pressure on Israel to release this particular terrorist leader (sorry, freedom fighter; oops, make that politician).

Cynical? You bet! (But hey, it's the name of the game in Arafat country!)

Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 13, 2004 12:27 PM

They didn't imprison Arafat.

Posted by: oj at November 13, 2004 12:35 PM

Did anyone see Jim Clancy on CNN commenting on the funeral procession?

I thought the man was about to blub.

Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at November 13, 2004 1:42 PM
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