A secret plan to supplant Arafat


Hichem Karoui
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Hichem Karoui
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2002-08-02T07:09:00Z
2002-08-02T07:09:00Z
2
890
5078
HP
42
10
6236
9.4402



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21
9.35 pt
2

0












A secret plan to supplant
Arafat

           

           

            By:
Hichem Karoui (in Paris)

            August 2, 2002

 

            Some
signs are currently pointing to a possible secret plan for the Palestinian
areas, expected to lead the American policy and to monitor the next evolutions.
In this context, the Bush administration is said to be forging forward alone
with a grand scheme for overhauling the Palestinian Authority politically,
economically, militarily and administratively. But the most interesting feature
in this current evolution concerns the manipulation of an international
development agency – USAID- for that purpose.

            Washington
has not apparently appreciated the opposition of Arab and European governments
to some of its interventionist plans in Iraq and the Palestinian areas. This
dearth of support did not deter the Bush administration from continuing its
efforts in the same direction and with the same goals, though. In this way, the
Palestinian plan is not just a local issue, but one brick in a comprehensive
strategy for redesigning the Middle East and its national frontiers, a strategy
already in motion among the Kurdish and Turkoman minorities of northern Iraq.
Has the Palestinians’ turn come now?

            The
battle for the new political configuration as it is wished in Washington took
two aspects: a diplomatic pressure, and a secret channel.

 

Diplomatic struggle

           

            On
Friday night, July 26, ambassador John Negroponte delivered a conspicuously
snapping speech at the UN Security Council in New York, as a reply to the Arab
states that have called the Council for a meeting to condemn Israel's last week
air raid on Gaza city. In his speech Negroponte said: " For any resolution
to go forward, the United States - which has a veto in the 15-nation council-
would want it to have the following four elements:

            -
An explicit condemnation of terrorism.

            -
A condemnation by name of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the Islamic Jihad and
Hamas groups- groups that have claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on
Israel.

            -
An appeal to all parties for a political settlement of the crisis.

            -
A demand for improvement of the security situation as a condition for any call
for a withdrawal of Israeli armed forces to positions they held before the
September 2000 start of a Palestinian uprising in which 1,467 Palestinians and
564 Israelis have died."

            For
the Israelis, the American view as emphasized by the American UN ambassador's
landmark statement, is just a clarification of the Bush administration's
general attitude as regards " global terror and its relations with the
Arab and Muslim world, as well as its perception of the Israel-Palestinian
conflict and the Jewish state's future in the Middle East". In effect,
some Israeli observers have not failed to notice that by the conditions he
posed for any Security Council resolution, ambassador Negroponte clearly
branded the Palestinian resistance against occupation a war of terror, which
Israel has every right to combat and defeat by all means. That would not go
logically without denying the Palestinians the right to resist the Israeli
violence. The conditions he laid down effectively negated the legitimacy of the
uprising the Palestinians launched 22 months ago and precluded them from
gaining any political capital from their resort to violence.

            Two
days later (i.e. Sunday), Secretary of State Colin Powell announced a scheduled
meeting with a delegation of Palestinian officials in Washington next week. The
main question is: what justifies such a meeting with representatives of the
disgraced PA? The men who will meet Mr. Powell have been actually appointed by
Mr. Arafat. According to the "Washington Post" (July 29), Senior US
officials have warned that if the latter is reelected in January elections,
Palestinians risked "consequences" including extending an ongoing US
boycott of their leadership. Yet, we already know that the

Palestinian
delegation would include Saeb Erekat and Abdel Razek Yehiye, both

appointed by
Arafat himself, and assumedly speaking on his behalf.

            Mr.
Powell has declared:" This is part of our process of moving forward to
help the Palestinian community transform itself".

            Is
this a possible - though indirect- answer? Otherwise, does he mean that Mr.
Erekat and Mr. Yehye would help him “moving forward” in this way, while they
know what are exactly the intentions of the American administration towards
Arafat?

 

The roundabout channel

 

            According
to the same sources, the White House has entrusted the international
development agency, USAID, with the task of rebuilding Palestinian authority
institutions from scratch. The administrator of this body, Andrew Nacios, and
his deputy, Frederick Schiek, are presidential appointees. The vice president's
daughter, assistant deputy secretary of state Elizabeth Cheney, has been named
overall coordinator of the program, including CIA operations, for overhauling
Palestinian governance. The USAID offices and facilities in Palestinian areas
stand now ready to be fully reactivated as a central instrument of the American
presence in Palestinian areas.

            The
international development agency – USAID- has been operating on the West Bank
and Gaza Strip since before the 1967 war when the two territories were
respectively under Jordanian and Egyptian jurisdictions. Its work was to
promote economic growth and oversee proper water supply, as well as public
health, community and education services. USAID was also making sure the aid
money was not misused for other purposes than those designated.

            However,
when the Oslo Peace process was initiated in 1993, USAID was reportedly forced
into a minor role by Yasser Arafat, who insisted that every dollar reaching the
PA be processed through him personally.

            Today,
it is said that the Bush administration would rely on this agency for a leading
role in its plan concerning the reinitiation of the PA governance. It is not
sure however that the Palestinians would appreciate the way Washington is
trying to deviate the agency from its initial role (mainly economical and
social).

 

Hichem Karoui
home page:

 

 http://hichemkaroui.com