March 18, 2003
TWO DOWN:
Arafat relents on sharing power with a new prime minister (James Bennet, March 19, 2003, The New York Times)After nightfall Monday, Palestinian legislators from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction gathered in his ruined compound here to face the full wrath of the leader who has dominated their movement for decades.The Palestinian Parliament had just voted twice to reject an amendment sought by Arafat to restrict the powers of a new Palestinian prime minister, and to Arafat - already alarmed by Israeli and American demands for the post - this looked like betrayal.
The stormy, four-hour meeting that followed reflected the mounting tensions between generations of Palestinian leaders, and between the institutions of the nascent Palestinian democracy. In the end, it was Arafat who relented, paving the way for the legislature to vote Tuesday to create a post of prime minister with the authority to form a government.
Arafat signed the law Tuesday night, Palestinian officials said.
It's important at moments like this to trumpet just how spectacularly wrong even his best-informed and most-influential critics have been about nearly every step Mr. Bush has taken as president. Here, for example, is one of the nation's top columnists opining on the President's Rose Garden speech, last June, which demanded a change in Palestinian leadership as a precondition to peace, Mr. Bush Talks the Talk (NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, June 28, 2002, NY Times)
It obliges our moralistic streak to try to replace Mr. Arafat, and it would be great if the Palestinians did get a better leader. But Mr. Bush's harrumphing does nothing to achieve better leadership in Palestine; if anything, it strengthens Mr. Arafat and boosts Hamas as well. One poll of Palestinians has already found that a solid plurality expects Mr. Arafat to be elected in a democratic vote. Another poll found that nearly three times as many Palestinians trust Mr. Arafat as they do the next highest contender.So by calling off our plans for a Middle East conference and simply insisting that Mr. Arafat leave the scene before we come out to deal, Mr. Bush is signaling that we are disengaging from the Middle East, returning to his earlier failed policy of looking the other way. That was a catastrophic mistake that helped create today's mess.
Contrary to Mr. Kristof's assertion, George W. Bush has very nearly (there's obviously a ways to go) effected regime change in Palestine, almost entirely through the force of his own determination.
MORE:
Wobbly Vision
Forcing the Contradictions (Brothers Judd, 4/04/02)
Hmm, an Arab dictator who starts to give in to opposing political forces, interesting. Arafat is a dead man walking.
Posted by: Peter at March 19, 2003 3:09 AMAs per all too many of his articles, James Bennet's "reading" of the situation should be taken with a mound of salt.
And as has been happening all too often over the past several years, in all too many NYT accounts of "reality," the guiding principle seems to be: "What do we here at the NYT wish the reader to believe?"
Which must, preforce, require NYT readers to ask themselves, all too often: "Why does the NYT wish us to believe this?"
(At least one can now get a sense of what it must have been like reading Pravda in its heyday....)