arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

C'est donc peut-être un pas vers la paix que représente cette nomination. Encore faudrait-il que le gouvernement Sharon collabore.

Abou Mazen n'est pas un pacifiste absolu. Certaines de ses déclarations ne vont pas du tout dans le sens d'un rapide accord de paix. Néanmoins c'est un pragmatique qui souhaite sortir la région du marasme et de la violence. Son discours début décembre sur la nécessité de la fin de la lutte armée a renforcé sa crédibilité, tant au sein de la population palestinienne que sur le plan international. Ses détracteurs les plus véhéments sont le Hamas et le Djihad islamique, qui de manière générale sont en lutte perpétuelle avec l'ensemble de l'Autorité Palestinienne. Mazen, qui souhaite empêcher leurs actions armées, aura besoin du soutien du gouvernement Israélien pour recréer une solide police palestinienne, autorisée et capable de se déplacer rapidement dans tous les territoires.

Deux éléments, encore incertains, seront donc déterminants dans l'efficacité d'Abou Mazen en tant que premier ministre. D'abord la reconnaissance de Mazen par le gouvernement Israélien qui, au lieu de bénéficier de cette opportunité d'affaiblissement des violences pourrait tout aussi bien la saboter. Ensuite la marge de manœuvre que laissera Arafat à son nouveau premier ministre. Arafat reste le leader des Palestiniens et n'est pas habitué à ce qu'un autre occupe le devant de la scène. Le tolérera-t-il ? Cette seconde condition est toutefois moins difficile à espérer que la première compte-tenu de la guerre imminente en Irak. Il n'est un secret pour personne que Sharon compte sur l'attention que retiendra l'offensive américaine pour intensifier les opérations militaires dans les territoires. Mais l'administration américaine a déjà reconnu Abou Mazen comme un interlocuteur valable pour les israéliens et compte sur lui pour mettre en œuvre la « feuille de route » censée préparer le terrain pour la création d'un Etat Palestinien. L'Autorité Palestinienne s'est dite prête a travailler sur base de ce document.

Quoi qu'il en soit et quoi qu'il advienne, nous ne pouvons qu'espérer que la nomination officielle de Abou Mazen comme premier ministre se fasse rapidement car malgré toutes les réserves et conditions que l'on peut émettre sur son efficacité pour la paix à court terme, elle constitue indubitablement un pas sur le bon chemin.

Israêl vient de donner une première réponse : "pas d'état palestinien indépendant".

Op naar de verdere onderdrukking en afhankelijkheid, ja!
Abou Mazen is geen haar beter dan Arafat, en 'Oslo' was het slechtste dat de Palestijnen kon overkomen!

Hier een interessant artikel erover:

WHY ISRAEL IS SO EXCITED ABOUT
"PRIME MINISTER" ABU MAZEN

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 15 March 2003
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1245.shtml

---------------------------------------------------------

Mahmoud Abbas ("Abu Mazen")The Israeli army "removed
from its Internet site quotes made by Palestinian Authority
prime ministerial candidate Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)
justifying armed resistance against settlements and
settlers, which were taken from the Arab-language
newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat," Ha'aretz reported on 12
March.

The move apparently came after settlers demanded that in
the light of Abbas' statements, prime minister Ariel
Sharon and president Moshe Katsav should retract the
cautious praise they had given his appointment. The
newspaper reported that, "In the past few days, U.S.
diplomats have asked Israel to ease the pressure on Abu
Mazen and enable him to maneuver freely," and speculated
that, "it is possible that the removal of the quotes from
the IDF site is in response to the American request."

This remarkable episode underscores the reasons why the
appointment of Abbas to the new position of prime
minister by Yasser Arafat has been a subject of much
excitement in the Israeli press, even as Palestinians
have met it with complete indifference.

Popular objections to Arafat's move stem from two
sources. First, Palestinians rightly ask of which
political entity Abbas will be prime minister.
Palestinians in the Occupied Territories live under
direct, Israeli military rule, and therefore are not
citizens of the state that rules them, or any other
state. Indeed, they are the largest group of non-citizens
on the planet, completely disenfranchised in a world of
nation-states. Introducing someone described as a "prime
minister" under these circumstances is simply ridiculous.

It will not change in any way the power equation between
the Palestinian people and their de facto rulers. No
matter what nominal powers are conferred on a Palestinian
"prime minister," he will have no ability to counteract
any of the crushing measures Israel is taking against the
civilian population. Respected Palestinian physician Dr.
Haider Abdel Shafi was certainly reflecting widespread
sentiment when he told The New York Times that, "My
feeling is that people are not at all excited," about the
appointment of a prime minister, since "it's seen as
compliance with outside pressure, not part of our real
needs." (10 March 2003)

The idea of a prime minister originated from Israel, and
was quickly adopted by the United States. As with other
Israeli- and American-inspired Palestinian "reforms,"
this latest move yet again puts the cart before the horse
by focusing on the trappings of statehood (i.e the post
of prime minister), rather than the development of an
independent state. The most important purpose of these
manoeuvers is to change the subject and to promote a
theory of the ongoing conflict, which elides its
fundamental cause -- the occupation and colonization of
Palestinian land -- and instead focuses attention
entirely on internal Palestinian politics. These tactics
reflect an understanding on the part of the Israeli
government that such spurious interpretations of the
cause of the ongoing conflict are essential to prevent
domestic and international public opinion from seeing the
obvious, which that the occupation is the cause of the
conflict and its end is the only solution.

The second source of objections stems from the individual
picked for the position. While the demand for Palestinian
"reform" is supposedly inspired by international concern
that there be better governance, Abbas is widely
perceived among Palestinians themselves as one of the
most notoriously corrupt individuals in the Palestinian
Authority. Soon after the Authority was established in
Gaza, construction began on a lavish $1.5 million villa
for Abbas, funded by unknown sources, and in the midst of
some of the world's most wretched poverty. In response to
widespread outrage, Arafat's "Minister of Commerce and
Economy," Nasser Sarraj, argued in The New York Times,
"Who says he [Abbas] doesn't have the right to live in a
villa worth $1.5 million, or even $10 million?" He added,
"Those who say he doesn't are spies and collaborators for
Israel." (2 February 1997)

Abbas is also deeply mistrusted among Palestinians for
his authorship along with senior Israelis of various
"peace plans" that relinquish fundamental Palestinian
rights and maintain the occupation intact albeit under
another name. It was Abbas' idea to take the dusty
village of Abu Dis, rename it "Al Quds" and then to hand
the entire city of Jerusalem over to Israel. Abbas is
frequently celebrated by such figures as Ha'aretz
commentator Akiva Eldar for his apparent willingness to
repudiate Palestinian refugees' right of return. What
Abbas advocates now is nothing more than a return to the
utterly failed Oslo process, which led directly and quite
predictably to the current bloody impasse.

It is no surprise that Assistant US Secretary of State
Richard Armitage told reporters on 28 February that Abbas
is America's choice, because, according to UPI, the
United States would want to see a leader who could "speak
authoritatively for the Palestinian people." A good prime
minister, Armitage added, "would be a great help to the
Palestinian people and also allow them to talk to
Israel." Obviously the Palestinians need better
leadership than they have been getting, but Abbas has
been a central figure in that failed leadership and does
not speak for the Palestinian people.

Israel, with the collusion of the United States, and not
to the great disappointment of Arafat, canceled elections
scheduled for last January which might have provided the
Palestinians some opportunity to speak for themselves and
pick new leaders. Instead, the discredited and ridiculous
Arafat, holed up for nearly two years in a pile of
rubble, has appointed another discredited Palestinian
leader to join him. It should be noted that Abbas was not
Arafat's first choice, because as soon as the United
States declared last summer that Arafat was finished,
Abbas began positioning himself to take over. Instead,
Arafat had wanted to appoint a political non-entity who
would not have posed any challenge to him or served the
Palestinian people any better.

Abbas is hardly a non-entity, but his track record and
the circumstances of his appointment go along way in
explaining why the Israeli and American governments are
far more keen on his appointment than is any Palestinian.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ali Abunimah is one of the four founders of The Electronic
Intifada, found at http://electronicIntifada.net. This
article first appeared in The Daily Star on 15 March 2003.