Marwan Barghouti to lead Fatah list?
Marwan Barghouti is to lead the Fatah list? (See here) this Haaretz article that discusses this possibility.
Who is Marwan Barghouti? (See here) a website that might help you to understand just who he is.
Is Marwan Barghouti an acceptable person to represent Palestine from an Israeli perspective? Well let us turn the question around. Is Ariel Sharon an acceptable person to represent Israel from a Palestinian perspective?
Certainly Barghouti is no worse a representative then Arafat was. Now that Arafat is gone (and we can look back at opportunity wasted) the only man that might be able to represent a unified Palestinian front in negotiations might be Barghouti.
Of course there is the problem that the man languishes in an Israeli prison. Perhaps the Israelis can be coaxed into giving him up if America agrees to giving up Johnathan Pollard?
Perhaps coming up with "one man" to represent the Palestinian people who we could negotiate with, we could hope that the end result of the negotiations would be respected. After all, we could end up with someone worse to negotiate with like someone from Hamas.
I personally like the choice of Barghouti to represent the Palestinian people. However I would counsel Marwan that something like the Geneva Accords is the best he can hope for. What Yassar was offered at Taba might have been insufficient. However what Marwan wants is also unreasonable.
But... what Ariel Sharon wants is also unreasonable. Is it wrong for both sides to ask that when we discuss this that both sides are allowed to have representatives who will actually represent their "unreasonable" positions? So that when we finally agree on the compromises the compromise that is accepted did not start out from a position of weakness?
If we are going to expect the Palestinians to lay down their arms and accept peace, it is going to take a strong leader like Marwan Barghouti to agree to it.
Marwan Barghouti seems to claim he accepts the right of Israel to exist. I would hold him to this belief as we conducted negotiations.
Who is Marwan Barghouti? (See here) a website that might help you to understand just who he is.
Is Marwan Barghouti an acceptable person to represent Palestine from an Israeli perspective? Well let us turn the question around. Is Ariel Sharon an acceptable person to represent Israel from a Palestinian perspective?
Certainly Barghouti is no worse a representative then Arafat was. Now that Arafat is gone (and we can look back at opportunity wasted) the only man that might be able to represent a unified Palestinian front in negotiations might be Barghouti.
Of course there is the problem that the man languishes in an Israeli prison. Perhaps the Israelis can be coaxed into giving him up if America agrees to giving up Johnathan Pollard?
Perhaps coming up with "one man" to represent the Palestinian people who we could negotiate with, we could hope that the end result of the negotiations would be respected. After all, we could end up with someone worse to negotiate with like someone from Hamas.
I personally like the choice of Barghouti to represent the Palestinian people. However I would counsel Marwan that something like the Geneva Accords is the best he can hope for. What Yassar was offered at Taba might have been insufficient. However what Marwan wants is also unreasonable.
But... what Ariel Sharon wants is also unreasonable. Is it wrong for both sides to ask that when we discuss this that both sides are allowed to have representatives who will actually represent their "unreasonable" positions? So that when we finally agree on the compromises the compromise that is accepted did not start out from a position of weakness?
If we are going to expect the Palestinians to lay down their arms and accept peace, it is going to take a strong leader like Marwan Barghouti to agree to it.
Marwan Barghouti seems to claim he accepts the right of Israel to exist. I would hold him to this belief as we conducted negotiations.
posted by Little David at 12/29/2005 11:30:00 AM
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