Six months since the Bush Middle East speech: are the Palestinians fulfilling his
conditions for Statehood?
Zionist Organization of America News Release, December 30, 2002
The Bush Plan
On June 24, 2002, President Bush set forth the conditions that the Palestinian
Arabs must fulfill in order to merit U.S. support for the creation of a Palestinian
Arab state.
Among the major obligations are that the Palestinian Arabs must
“dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” “end incitement,” “elect new leaders not
compromised by terror,” and unequivocally embrace democracy and free market
economics.
This report analyzes Palestinian Arab actions during the six months following
President Bush’s speech, June 24, 2002 – December 24, 2002.
I. “Dismantle the Terrorist Infrastructure”
What They Must Do: President Bush said that the Palestinian Arabs must
“engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their
infrastructure.”
Those terms were previously defined in the Oslo and Wye accords as
including arresting and imprisoning terrorists; shutting down bomb factories;
seizing terrorists’ weapons; extraditing terrorists to Israel; punishing factions of
the PLO that engage in terrorism; and outlawing terrorist groups.
The Bush administration has also said that in rebuilding its police and security
forces, the PA must reform them so that they fight against terrorists instead of
taking part in terrorism. The training, under the supervision of U.S., Egyptian,
and Jordanian security officials, began on September 19, 2002; however, Israel
has protested the fact that at least 100 of the 150 PA security officers
participating in the course “were involved in attacks on Israeli civilians.”
(Middle East Newsline, Sept.17, 2002)
What They Did During the Six Months After the Speech:
The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Lt.Gen.Shaul Mofaz, said on Israel
Television on July 3: “The Palestinian Authority (PA) does not carry out any
activity to foil terror. The foremost use of the funds collected by the Palestinian
Authority from around the world is for terror activity.”
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said (PBS NewsHour, August 1): “The
Palestinians have not tried a single time to stop the terrorists.”
At the weekly Cabinet meeting on August 18, Defense Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer and Israeli Army Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon said “there
has been no decline” in “the terrorist organizations’ intentions to perpetrate
new and harsh attacks inside the State of Israel and against soldiers and
civilians in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.”
Moreover, secret Pay documents captured by the Israeli Army (Ha’aretz,
Nov.24, 2002) revealed that
“The PA’s Preventive Security Organization in the Gaza Strip has set up
a factory for producing large quantities of nitric acid, the most important
chemical in making explosives…
It appears that the factory was set up to bypass the obstacles facing
militant organizations in producing or acquiring explosives. Most of the
chemicals used by the Palestinians to produce homemade explosives are
acquired from Israel. However, in recent weeks the Palestinians have managed
to produce explosives with an efficiency near that of military-grade materials…
A document was seized in the Preventive Security Organization’s
headquarters in Tel al-Hiweh describing the setting up of the factory as a
“strategic project.”
The Israeli Army spokesman said on December 12 that during the past two
years, the PA’s Preventive Security Forces has established “a network of
weapon-manufacturing facilities in the Gaza strip…
Since its creation, hundreds of Mortar bombs, explosives, guns, rockets,
and other types of weapons have been manufactured…
The weapons were handed out freely to various terrorist organizations
including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committees
who make daily use of them against Israeli targets in and around the Gaza
strip…
The Palestinian Preventive Security Service has changed from an
organization whose task it is to fight to terrorism, to an organization that is
directly involved in terrorism and that produces weapons for terrorist
organizations in the Gaza Strip. This transformation has also occurred within
other Palestinian security organizations including the General Intelligence
Service and Force 17.”
A. No Terrorists Arrested: There were no reports of terrorists being arrested or
imprisoned.
On the contrary, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom the PA had
claimed to have placed in “house arrest” a week earlier, openly took part in a
Hamas rally in Gaza on June 28. Yassin told reporters, “I was informed of no
house arrest order. I went out of my house, behaving normally, and no one
stopped me.”
(N.Y.Times, June 29, 2002)
The Washington Post reported: “Palestinian police monitoring the demonstration
made no attempt to detain Yassin.” It would have been impossible for the police
not to notice him, as photos from the rally show the sheikh, garbed in his
distinctive white robes, being driven slowly around the rally in an automobile
surrounded by his entourage of armed followers. Among those featured at the
rally was a 10 year-old boy dressed as a suicide bomber.
(Washington Post, June 29, 2002; Washington Times, June 28, 2002)
B. No Terrorists Extradited: The PA continued to ignore Israel’s 45 requests for
the extradition of terrorists.
C. No Terror Groups Outlawed: The PA did not outlaw Hamas, Islamic Jihad,
Fatah, or any other terrorist groups.
D. No Terrorists’ Weapons Seized: There were no reports of the PA seizing
terrorists’ weapons.
By contrast, Israeli forces in Hebron seized 5,000 of the terrorists’ weapons in
late June; in Shechem (Nablus) on July 7, Israeli soldiers seized an arms cache
consisting of 300 pipe bombs, 20 gas containers, crates of firebombs, and
quantities of explosive powder; on August 28, Israeli forces thwarted an
attempt to smuggle large amounts of weapons and explosives into
PA-controlled Gaza, via the Mediterranean sea in barrels.
On October 2, Israeli forces seized a cache of weapons in Tulkarm, including an
explosives belt for a suicide bomber and Kalachnikov assault rifles with bullet
cartridges; on October 6, Israeli troops in Khan Yunis discovered and destroyed
an arsenal of mortar shells; on October 9, Israeli forces operating near Kalkilya
discovered and dismantled a 33-pound bomb that was being prepared for use in
an attack. On October 25, Israeli forces in Hebron discovered a heavy caliber
automatic machine gun in the hills overlooking the Jewish neighborhoods,
pointed at those neighborhoods.
Israeli forces on November 17 raided a PA Preventive Security Services camp in
Gaza, where they found Kassam missiles, anti-tank rockets, mortar launchers
and mortars, anti-tank grenades, land mines and other weapons. On December
2, Israeli forces discovered a cache of 15 kilograms of explosives southwest of
Shechem (Nablus). On December 22, Israeli forces discovered
ready-to-detonate bombs in a private house in Rafiah, and an entrance to a
tunnel to Egypt that was used for smuggling weapons to the PA.
E. No Closure of Bomb Factories: There were no reports of the PA shutting
down any bomb factories.
By contrast, Israeli forces in Hebron discovered a bomb factory containing
several explosive belts ready to be mounted on suicide bombers. By contrast,
the Israeli Army uncovered and destroyed bomb factories in Ramallah and
Shechem (Nablus) on July 6; in Hirbat-A-Tira on July 7; in Khan Yunis on July
14; in Dir al Balah on July 17; three in Gaza on July 25; another in Gaza on
August 5; and one in Silat-a-Hartiya near Jenin on August 21.
Israeli forces discovered and destroyed a bomb factory in the building of
the Palestinian Legislative Council, in Jenin, on July 31. On August 28, Israeli
forces uncovered and destroyed a large bomb factory in Jenin.
During the month of September 2002, Israeli forces discovered a total of 58
bomb factories in the territories, including: on September 6, Israeli helicopters
struck a weapons factory in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis; on September 6,
Israeli helicopters struck a weapons factory in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis; on
September 9, they discovered a bomb factory in Jenin; on September 12, Israeli
forces destroyed six workshops in the Gaza city of Rafah where Kassam
rockets were being manufactured; on September 14, Israeli forces uncovered
and destroyed a large explosives factor in the village of Azna, south of Jenin;
on September 15, Israeli forces destroyed a weapons plant in Rafah where
mortars and Kassam rockets were being made and eight weapons-producing
lathes located in local homes; on September 16, Israeli forces located and
destroyed nine rocket-producing workshops in the Khan Yunis area; on
September 18, Israeli forces in Gaza City located and destroyed seven
structures used to produce weapons including Kassam rockets, and exploded a
large laboratory for the production of explosives; on September 22, they
discovered a bomb factory in Jenin; on September 23, Israeli troops in Gaza
destroyed thirteen metal workshops, which were used to produce Kassam
rockets; and on September 29, they discovered a bomb factory in Charbata.
On October 2, Israeli forces discovered a bomb factory in A-Lebed; on October
14, Israeli forces discovered and destroyed a bomb factory in Kabatya, south of
Jenin; on October 28, they discovered several bomb-making factories in
Shechem (Nablus); on November 11, Israeli forces located and struck at a
mortar-rocket factory in Gaza; on November 17, they located and destroyed a
bomb factory near Khan Yunis. Secret PA documents captured by the Israeli
Army (and quoted in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz on Nov.24, 2002) revealed that
“The PA’s Preventive Security Organization in the Gaza Strip has set up
a factory for producing large quantities of nitric acid, the most important
chemical in making explosives…
It appears that the factory was set up to bypass the obstacles facing
militant organizations in producing or acquiring explosives. Most of the
chemicals used by the Palestinians to produce homemade explosives are
acquired from Israel. However, in recent weeks the Palestinians have managed
to produce explosives with an efficiency near that of military-grade materials…
A document was seized in the Preventive Security Organization’s
headquarters in Tel al-Hiweh describing the setting up of the factory as a
“strategic project’.”
F. No Punishing of PLO Terror Factions: There were no reports of the PLO
leadership punishing PLO factions that are engaged in terrorism, such as the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
G. New Terrorist Attacks: In the six months since the Bush speech, Israeli there
have been at least 745 Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks or attempted attacks,
in which 135 people were killed and 718 wounded.
On August 19, Israel announced that it reached an agreement with the PA to
withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza and Bethlehem in exchange for a halt to
Palestinian Arab terrorism in those areas. Nevertheless, many attacks were
perpetrated in or from Gaza during the days that followed.
II. “End Incitement”
What They Must Do: President Bush stated that the Palestinian Arabs must
“end incitement to violence in official media and publicly denounce homicide
bombings.” What They Did During During the Six Months After the Speech:
* New Video Glorifies ‘Martyrdom’:
On June 27, a new video debuted on PA Television. It features an actor
portraying a Palestinian Arab man who is captured during an attempted attack
on Israelis. As Israelis prepare to kill him, he is greeted by a large group of
beautiful young Arab women (actresses) who smile alluringly and beckon to
him. He is then shown smiling in paradise while the women caress him. The
video is being aired “in the afternoon for maximum viewing by Palestinian
children.”
(Media Line, June 27, 2002)
* PA Sheikh Threatens U.S.:
In a sermon broadcast on PA Television on June 28, a prominent
clergyman, Ahmed Abdul Razek, declared: “A divine blow will be dealt soon to
the U.S. and Israel, by Allah’s will. The believers will rejoice with Allah’s
victory.”
(Palestinian Media Watch, June 30, 2002)
* Toddler Dressed as Suicide Bomber:
In a disturbing new example of the extent to which support for violence
has permeated Palestinian Arab culture, Israeli forces searching an Arab home
in Hebron discovered a photo of a toddler dressed as a suicide bomber. Some
Palestinian Arab spokesmen claimed that the photo was fake, but the child’s
cousin and uncle told reporters it was authentic.
(Reuters, June 28, 2002; N.Y.Times, June 29, 2002)
PA cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib said Israel released the photo “to tell
the world that the Palestinians are teaching their children how to hate Israel and
how to act against Israel and I just want to say that is correct.”
(N.Y.Times, June 29, 2002)
* Anti-Bush Rally:
On the eve of America’s Independence day, July 4, the PA organized a
mass rally against “American meddling.” Official PA Television broadcast
coverage of the rally, focusing on a poster which showed President Bush’s
name dripping with blood, next to a skull-and-crossbones, with the words “The
American people deserve a president better than Bush.”
The PA Television announcer said: “The American administration’s
attempts to meddle in the Palestinian people’s internal affairs, to impose its
conditions on the Palestinian leadership and the attempt to depose the leader,
Yasir Arafat, caused thousands to rally in a giant mass procession expressing
total rejection of this meddling.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media
Watch)
* “America the Deceiver”:
On July 4, PA Television broadcast an hour-long film which included
scenes of Palestinian Arabs accusing the United States of “fraud and deceit”
and rejecting U.S. food packages, saying, “Tell the Deceiver: the people will die
of hunger live in humiliation.”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
* “America Carried Out the 9/11 Attacks”:
The PA representative in Dubai, Saleem Abu Sultan, told the Gulf News
that the United States itself organized the September 11 terrorist attacks:
“America plans things and knows what it exactly wants from a certain area.
They always plan, like they planned the case of the recent September 11
attacks and blamed Bin Laden and the Muslims.”
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 15, 2002)
* Paying Bombers’ Families:
On July 18, the PA held a public ceremony to honor suicide bombers, at
which PA Cabinet Minister Imad Faluji personally distributed checks from Iraq,
for thousands of dollars, to families of the bombers. At the end of the
ceremony, PA officials led the audience in chants of “Death to Bush, Death to
Bush.”
(Middle East Newsline, July 19, 2002)
* Appeal for “Jihad”:
On July 19, PA Television and PA Radio both broadcast a sermon from
Sheikh Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, delivered by Sheikh Ahmad Abd al-Raziq, in which
he said that “Allah has afflicted us,” but it would not have happened “had
Muslims carried out Allah’s orders for jihad, and not listened to this empty talk
about peace.”
(FBIS, July 21, 2002)
* Urging violence:
On July 26, the PA permitted a mass Hamas rally in Gaza, at which
Hamas leaders called for violence “like an earthquake” against Israel.
* Rallies celebrate mass murder:
The PA permitted thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members to
hold a mass rally in Gaza on July 31 to celebrate the bombing of the Hebrew
University cafeteria. A similar rally was allowed in Balata, near Shechem
(Nablus) on August 1.
* Support for terrorism:
On August 4, PA official Abdel Rahman, on the Arab television station
Al-Jazeera, justified the Meron Junction bus attack because of Israeli policies.
He also said, according to Israel Radio, that “he does not feel the terrorism
needs to be controlled.”
* “Jews are deceitful”:
PA cabinet minister Imad Falouji declared, in a broadcast on official PA
Television on August 8: “Israel does not recognize the basis of the negotiations.
That is because Jewish nature is in control of that state and does not sanction
peace or stability…
The Jewish nation, it is known, from the dawn of history, from the time
Allah created them, lives by scheme and deceit.”
(Jerusalem Post, August 12, 2002)
* Supporting Saddam Hussein:
The PA permitted a mass rally by Arafat’s Fatah movement in Rafah
(Gaza) on August 15, at which “the demonstrators chanted anti-US and
anti-Israel slogans, burned flags of both countries and fired shots in the air,
while calling on Saddam to attack Tel Aviv…the demonstrators waved
Palestinian flags as well as posters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and
Hussein. ‘We are marching to Iraq, giving millions of martyrs on the way,’ they
chanted.
Many of the marchers were teenagers and some were children. Some
marched with bare chests, clutched automatic machine guns and had black
paint smeared on their faces like combat soldiers. Raouf Barbakh, a member of
Arafat’s Fatah movement and an organizer of the rally, said Palestinians and
Iraqis shared “the same present and the same future.”
(Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2002)
* Burning American flags:
The PA permitted a rally on August 18 at which “Hundreds of armed
Palestinian children gathered in the streets of Gaza City singing the praises of
the leader of Iraq, Sadam Hussein. The children urged Sadam to fire missiles to
Israeli territory while burning the flags of Israel and the U.S. During the
gathering the Palestinian youths walked about dressed in white cloaks and
wearing explosive belts.”
(Israeli Army spokesman)
* Glorifying murderers of Americans:
Palestinian Media Watch reported on August 18 that despite the PA’s
August 11 promise to change the name of a school named after mass-murderer
Dalal Mugrahbi (a promise made after a threat to withdraw U.S. financial aid to
the school), the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on August 16 again
referred to it as “the Dalal Mughrabi School.” Mughrabi’s victims (in a 1978
attack) included American photographer Gail Rubin, niece of then-U.S.Senator
Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT).
* Calls for “martyrs”:
On August 18, PA Television broadcast a speech by Arafat in which he
urged an audience of children: “One of you, a boy or a girl, shall raise the
flag over the walls of Jerusalem, its mosques and its
churches…Onward together to Jerusalem!” The cheering children responded by
chanting: “Millions of martyrs marching to Jerusalem!”
* Children pretending to be suicide bombers:
The Israeli Army web site (www.idf.il) reported on August 25 that the
PA weekly publication Al-Aman reports that a new children’s outdoor game
being played these days in the PA city of Ramallah:
“We have noticed a new development in the children’s games. We saw
how one of the children would stand next to his friend and say, ‘Strap me.’ The
‘engineer’ would then strap a toy explosives belt onto his friend, under his shirt
or robe. The two of them then hug each other, and the ‘suicide terrorist’ then
turns towards a bus or a group of his friends, screams ‘Allah is great!’, and
presses a button. The children jump and fall on his right and left from the force
of the ‘explosion.’ The game ends only when all the children have had their turn
at being the suicide killer, wearing the vest and pressing the button!”
* Calling for “more attacks against Israel”:
Israel Radio reported on August 31 that PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmad
Abdul Rahman “called for all Palestinians to carry out attacks against Israel.”
* Arafat calls for more violence:
In a speech to the PA’s Legislative Council in Ramallah, on September 9,
Arafat said, “Each of us wants to be a holy martyr in our struggle for
independence.”
While saying he opposes suicide attacks against “civilians” within
Israel’s pre-1967 borders, Arafat expressed no opposition to murdering Israeli
soldiers within the 1967 borders and no opposition to murdering Israeli civilians
(including women and children) in areas beyond the 1967 lines, such as
Jerusalem’s Western Wall. Indeed, Arafat again endorsed what he called
“legitimate resistance to conquest.”
* Posters glorifying suicide attacks:
Israeli troops searching PA schools in Ramallah — some of them under
the auspices of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) — on
September 9 found that the classrooms were filled with “posters glorifying
suicide attacks, armed struggle, and leaders of the terrorist wing of Hamas.”
* PA Television urges violence:
On September 10, official PA television broadcast ten minutes of films
calling expressly for attacking the Israeli “enemy.” The films featured footage of
Arafat himself and other Palestinian Arab leaders carrying weapons during
attacks on Israel.
The chant “Oh, masses of the occupied land, go forward with the
revolution against the enemy” was repeated dozens of times in a song that
featured a mixture of celebratory martial music that played over pictures of
Arab youths throwing burning gasoline bombs, rocks and firing rifles.
(Media Line)
* PA newspaper ridicules America:
On September 11, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida published two
cartoons harshly ridiculing the U.S. One showed Uncle Sam running in fright
from the date “September 11” attached to a pair of legs; the other portrayed
the fatalities from the 9/11 attacks as “victims of American imperialism.”
Several days earlier, the newspaper published cartoons depicting George
Bush and Tony Blair as Nazis, and portraying the U.S. war on terror as a cover
for American policy to seize Arab oil. A cartoon in the PA-sponsored newspaper
Al Ayam on Oct. 23, 2002 portrayed President Bush as the Washington-area
sniper, taking aim at an outline of Iraq.
(Translations courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)
* Burning American flags:
Arafat’s Fatah held a rally in Gaza on September 16 at which they
burned American and Israeli flags.
* Songs on PA Television urge violence:
On September 22, official PA Television broadcast scenes of mass street
violence, accompanied by the song “Where Are the Masses,” the lyrics of
which declare:
“Where are the masses? / Where is the Arab nation? / Where is the Arab
rage? / Where is the Arab blood? / Where is the Arab honor?” … Allah is with
us, He is stronger than the Zionists / … Call upon the armies, for my voice has
not reached them / We are the possessors of the Rights / We are to Revolution,
and they are infidel possessors of the elephant / We are the generation of the
Rights, generation of the revolution, Allah’s flock of Attack Birds / Therefore
thrust upon them stones, stones from Hell!”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
* PA Television shows mothers celebrating violence:
On October 3, PA Television began broadcasting a new film clip in which
“five civilian gunmen, armed with automatic rifles, go off to
fight Israelis. One of the gunmen is seen running towards Israeli fire until he
attacks the Israelis with a hand grenade, after which, in slow motion, he is shot
and falls dead to the ground. When his body is brought to his mother she kisses
him and raises her hand above her mouth and calls out the traditional Arab call
of joy. Afterwards, she stoically hands the rifle to the next in line to continue
the killing of Israelis.”
Another film clip now being shown on PA television shows a child
writing to his parents: “Mother don’t cry over me, be joyous over my blood.”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
* PA newspaper blames U.S. for Moscow theater attack:
On October 29, 2002, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah published
an article by senior columnist Fuad Abu Hajleh claiming that the CIA
masterminding the Muslim Chechnyan terrorist siege of a Moscow theater that
resulted in the deaths of 118 hostages:
“President Putin’s ambassador to the Security Council is threatening to
vote against the American’s proposed resolution to attack Iraq. This is how we
view the operation in the Moscow theater; we are of the opinion that the
sympathy and friendship that bond Washington to several Islamic movements in
Europe, among them the Chechens, cannot possibly be one-sided and there has
to be some sort of repayment of the American friendship by the Mujahedin of
Chechnya, Bosnia, Hercegovina and Kosovo. The CIA will never acknowledge
its responsibility for this operation which claimed over 170 lives, including those
of the perpetrators… However, the American message reached Moscow and
was, perhaps, read the same way by the decision makers in France, who
oppose the American pressure in the Security Council … we fear a recurrence
of a bloody scene in the capitol of friends, the French. We hope they are
preparing for such an eventuality, lest it be Moscow first and Paris next.”
* Arafat calls for “martyrs”:
On November 4, Israel Television reported that Arafat declared in a
speech: “One martyr (“shahid”) in Jerusalem is equal to 40 martyrs elsewhere.”
* PA newspaper glorifies terrorists:
On November 2, the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida featured
generous and sympathetic coverage of a rally held in Damascus by the terrorist
group Islamic Jihad in memory of its late leader, Fathi Shikaki.
The newspaper published photos showing children at the rally dressed in
terrorists’ garb, standing in front of a screen showing a film praising Islamic
Jihad’s “Jerusalem Battalions” terrorist units. In the background were photos of
Shikaki and banners reading “The blood of the martyrs paints the path to
Jerusalem.”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)
* PA official threatens America:
PA legislator Nahed Munir Alrayis, writing in his regular column in the
official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida on Nov. 25, 2002, threatened that U.S.
policy toward the Arab world will leave the Arabs no choice but to resort to
“suicide attacks against the United States, its armed forces and its navy.”
He accused President Bush of “attempting to isolate them so
that they will have no hope of an ally in integrity and justice, to incite others
against them so much that they will lose their trust in what is called ‘world
public opinion’ and ‘human rights’ and to close off all the political and
diplomatic avenues which nurture hope, then they will have nothing left, in this
position, except suicide missions against the United States, its armed and its navy.”
(Translation coy of Palestinian Media Watch)
* PA official says “The Jewish religion is based on killing”:
On December 12, 2002, PA television broadcast an interview with PA
Minister of Supplies Abd El-Aziz Shahin, who aid: “Since the nineteenth century
the Zionist mind has been built upon the killing of the Arab people. They do not
want a single Arab on Palestinian soil. This is a matter that exists with every
Zionist, whether he is right-wing, center, or left wing.because the Zionist
education. in their religious schools, where they learn that they are the chosen
people of God and we are the others, we are considered the stage between the
Jew and the monkey. This is a basis of the Jewish religion, and from this
comes the killing of the Arab people in Palestine.”
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
* PA Television calls for “the downfall of the United States”:
On December 13, 2002, according to FBIS, PA television broadcast a
sermon from Khalil al-Wazir Mosque in Gaza, in which Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris
said:
“Some day, Arabs will announce the downfall of the United States,
which claims to be the God of this world… Palestinians are confronting Israel
and the United States, the strongest force in the world…”O God, support the
mujahidin who are fighting for your sake everywhere. O God,
help fighters in Palestine score victory. O God, lift the siege on the Palestinian
people and their leadership.”
* PA praises Saddam:
At a PA-sponsored ceremony in Gaza on December 18, titled “Palestine
and Iraq in the Same Trench”, 25 families of Palestinian Arab “martyrs”
received grants from Saddam Hussein totaling $280,000. Sketches of Arafat
and Saddam Hussein appeared together on a poster beside the Iraqi and PA
flags.
During the ceremony, support was expressed for Iraq in its coming battle
with the United States and one of the speakers, the poet Omar Halil Omar,
“praised the role of Iraq and the Commander Saddam Hussein, and stressed
that Iraq’s land will be a graveyard for the American soldiers,” according to the
official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al- Jadida, Dec. 19, 2002.
(Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)
III. “Elect New Leaders Not Compromised by Terror”
What They Must Do: President Bush stated that the Palestinian Arabs must hold
“fair multiparty elections by the end of the year, with national elections to
follow,” in which they “elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror.”
What They Did During the Six Months After the Speech:
Yasir Arafat and other PA officials unequivocally rejected President Bush’s call
for new Palestinian Arab leadership. Arafat said: “This is what my people will
decide. They are the only ones who can determine this.”
(Washington Post, June 26, 2002)
The PLO’s Palestine National Council issued a statement expressing its
“full, unconditional support and solidarity” with Arafat.
(Washington Post, July 3, 2002)
The PA announced that it will hold elections for chairman of the PA and
members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2003, if Israel
withdraws from various parts of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
It remains to be seen whether those elections, if held, will be free and
fair, as President Bush has urged, or will be marred by ballot-stuffing and
intimidation of voters and potential non-PLO candidates, as were the last PA
elections, in 1996.
On July 23, the United Nations issued a study, “Human Development Report
2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World,” which warned that some
authoritarian countries have held elections which appeared to be democratic but
in fact did not succeed in democratizing those nations.
“One multiparty election does not a democracy make,” said Mark
Malloch Brown, administrator of the U.N. program which published the report.
“The international cheerleaders for democracy have underestimated what it
takes to build a functioning, properly rooted democracy.”
(New York Times, July 24, 2002)
On August 23, PA cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said that the Bush
administration proposed that the PA parliament choose a prime minister, who
would rule in place of Arafat, rather than have general elections for leader of
the PA.
Erekat said: “We told them that this is not your business. We were
shocked during the discussions that the American side is speaking about
changing the law of elections.”
(Associated Press, Aug. 23, 2002)
IV. “Build Democracy Based on Tolerance and Liberty”
What They Must Do: President Bush said that the Palestinian Arabs must “build
a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty,” with “a new
constitution” and “a truly independent judiciary. He said they must “confront
corruption,” and “the Palestinian parliament should have the full authority of a
legislative body.”
They must implement “market economics,” and create “a vibrant
economy where honest enterprise is encouraged by honest government.”
In addition, there must be “an externally supervised effort to rebuild and
reform the Palestinian security services” with “clear lines of authority and
accountability and a unified chain of command.”
What They Did During the Six Months After the Speech:
On June 26, the PA announced that it planned to initiate a 100-day plan of
reforms in various aspects of its governing process and structure.
(New York Times, June 27, 2002)
Whether those reforms will be meaningful and lead to true democracy,
as President Bush has urged, remains to be seen.
The PA security services initiated no reforms to prevent its members from
engaging in terrorism.
On the contrary, there were many indications that the PA security
services continue to be involved in terrorism even after President Bush’s
speech. When Israeli forces entered Hebron and Ramallah in pursuit of terrorists
on June 25, PA police officers in both cities, instead of helping to capture the
terrorists, opened fire on the Israelis. Israeli forces in Hebron discovered
hundreds of explosive charges in the offices of the PA General Intelligence and
the PA Preventive Security Service. (Israeli Army Spokesman, June 30, 2002)
In early July, Arafat fired Jibril Rajoub, chief of the PA Preventive Security
Force in Judea-Samaria; Ghazi Jabali, the PA Chief of Police; and Mahmoud
Abu Marzouk, the civil defense chief.
However, Jabali was then offered the position of Adviser on Police
Affairs to Arafat, and Rajoub was offered the position of governor of Jenin,
while the current governor of Jenin, Zuhair Manasra, was offered Rajoub’s job.
The Washington Post reported, “It is not clear whether was fired as
part of an internal power struggle, or if he was removed from office as part of
an overall effort to reform the authority’s security services, as Arafat has
stated.”
(Washington Post, July 7, 2002)
Similarly, the New York Times reported that “the clash appeared to have more to do with political rivalry than
reform.”
(New York Times, July 8, 2002)
On July 9, Israeli government spokesman Ra’anan Gissin described the
firings as an attempt by Arafat to “remove his opponents” under the cover of
“the illusion of reform.”
(Washington Times, July 10, 2002)
On July 10, Arafat announced the appointment of Mohammed Dahlan as his
National Security Adviser. Until earlier this year, Dahlan had served as Security
Chief in Gaza, and masterminded numerous terrorist attacks, including the
November 2000 bombing of a schoolbus in which two Israelis (one the husband
of a U.S. citizen) were murdered and four were permanently crippled, one of
them a U.S. citizen.
The PA continues to claim that it is in the process of implementing what it
describes as a “100-day reform plan,” but experts doubt that the reforms will
be genuine. Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said
of the plan: “While it offers promising elements of change, the plan is only likely
to strengthen the unacceptable status quo.”
(Middle East Newsline, July 9, 2002)
On October 29, 2002, Arafat announced the appointment of a new cabinet;
however, 16 of the 19 cabinet members had likewise been members of the
outgoing cabinet.
(New York Times, Oct. 30, 2002)
Furthermore, on October 29, 2002, the PA announced it had condemned to
death an Arab human-rights worker (Heidar Mahmoud Hussein Ghanim, an
employee of the leftwing Israeli group B’Tselem) for “spying for Israel.”
IV. Conclusion
During the six months following President Bush’s speech, the Palestinian Arabs
failed to fulfill any of the conditions that the president set forth as prerequisites
for U.S. support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.