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May 29, 2005 The way I see it is that Mahmoud Abbas is so far doing good but he needs to do a little more, and I'll tell you more about that later. Meanwhile, allow me to quote the President's words after meeting with Abbas. He said " Israel should not undertake any activities that contravene roadmap obligations or prejudice final status negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Therefore, Israel must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion." The President's statement is self explanatory meaning that Israel under the terms of the road map for peace has some obligations that it must adhere to it-- so the progress towards peace ought not be hindered by fringe issues. The President added " The barrier being erected by Israel as part of its security effort must be a security rather than political barrier and its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities." Here again the President is very transparent about not wanting the security barrier to snake too deep into Palestinian land and cause hardship for them by separating them from their fields and orchards, especially if they are not at all involved in any terrorist activities. The President's distinction in that regard is a quite stark one. During more questioning from reporters, the President was asked about the presence of Hamas candidates on the July 17 Palestinian ballot, the President responded by saying "Hamas is a terrorist group, it is on the terrorist list for a reason." Here is where Abbas needs to do more but he has not done enough. For example: In 1970 after the Jordanian army managed to defeat the Palestinian guerrilla fighters in Amman, the capital city of Jordan, the Palestinians guerrillas were heavily armed with basic military hardware as well as some advanced weaponry cache such as rocket launcher and anti tank and anti aircraft small missiles, and armored vehicles, land mines and so on. The army under the command of the late King Hussein was under orders to shoot to kill any individual seen on the street brandishing even the smallest piece of weaponry, the army vowed to once and for all stamp out the phenomenon of military chauvinism by the guerrillas throughout the city neighborhoods and the surrounding suburban areas, they imposed a 24 hours curfew, they announced via radio, television, and loud speakers about their intent to search each and every house in the city without exception, any body that owns semi automatic machine gun, rocket launcher, hand grenade, a pistol, or anything to do with any kind of military hardware must leave it out side their house or in their yards, the military police will pass by collect the weapons, search the house to double check it, and then no questions asked. If someone intentionally and deceptively intends to hide a piece of weaponry so he or she can use it at a later date, and the military police happen to find it during their search, that individual will pay the heavy price of going to jail for the rest of his life if not get hanged if a charge of perfidy to the nations can be attributed to him. Within a two -week period the entire city consisting of population of over one million people was thoroughly searched, all the weapons were collected, no one was killed, and no shots were fired. It is now 35 years later and Amman is still a very secure city free of any kinds of weapons, the only time you hear gun fire is because it is a celebratory in nature and not a hostile one. Abbas should learn a lesson from the late King Hussein, if he is serious about peace as he says he is, he must end the phenomenon of weapon brandishing on the streets, and every where in Gaza and the West Bank, so long as there are armed men roaming the streets carrying illegal weapons , they can start firing any time without a notice. It also will always be perceived as an out of control lawless or even a state within a state chaotic situation with mass confusion. The only people that ought to be carrying guns are the authorized state police personnel, all other weapons must be collected willingly or by force, whichever is more convenient. Once all of the weaponry is collected, peace will prevail, Israel will feel a lot more secured, and when calm prevails throughout the territory, people will begin thinking about other things beside shooting and planting land mines, and firing rockets at Israel settlements. I'm sure once Abbas accomplishes a total and complete the weapon collection project, Sharon will not hesitate to reciprocate, by granting Abbas his wish, namely; freeing the Palestinian people of the check points, and vacating their cities and town, and freeing their prisoners. Abbas must understand that Sharon's main concern is Israel's security, I'm sure he heard him saying it hundreds of times, and so long as Abbas isn't contributing towards that endeavor, Sharon will not reciprocate, and the saga will continue. ------------ About the author: Hatem Abunimeh writes about the Arab people culture, religion, and politics. He is a gadfly for Palestine media watch, based in Washington DC. Email: habunimeh@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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