(via Ha’artez) On July 14, PA Interior Minister Hakim Balawi gave revealing testimony. He refrained from mentioning Arafat by name, but his words were clearly aimed at the PA chairman.
“… It is prohibited to launch rockets and to fire weapons from houses, and that is a supreme Palestinian interest that should not be violated because the result is barbaric retaliation by the occupying army and the citizenry cannot accept such shooting. Those who do it are a certain group that does not represent the people and nation, doing it without thinking about the general interest and public opinion in the world and in Israel. There is no vision or purpose to the missiles; the Palestinian interest is more important,” Balawi said.
Says Rashid Abu Shbak, head of Preventive Security in Gaza and a Dahlan ally:
“Shooting rockets from Beit Hanun creates an excuse for a new occupation and the citizenry is helpless. Most of the militiamen represent the general atmosphere instead of the law and order and the PA. It is threatening the entire national project … we have been handling the problems all wrong. We discuss the problem with the person who created it and give into their illegal demands … we encouraged this and accepted it, against the law and against the very spirit of statehood. There is no deterrence of criminals and collaborators, and we are forced to deal with problems using clan methods, rather than legal methods. If this continues, it will send difficult messages to our people, to the Israelis who claim there is no Palestinian partner and to the international community, that we don’t deserve a state.” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462724.html
Wow. Now we hear that Barghouti maybe working in tandem with Dahlan to facilitate the aftermath of Israeli withdrawl from Gaza. Interesting. People always said Bargouthi was someone we could deal with, and his reformist tendencies are in line with Dahlan’s. Too bad the people ‘we can deal with’ are only those with somewhat less blood on their hands than those with whom ‘we won’t deal with’ whose hands are stained in our blood. Bargouthi is serving something like 50 life sentances for his direct role in terrorism. So someone remind me, why can’t we nail Arafat again?
