Arafat: Abu Mazen has betrayed the Palestinian people

[IndianaGreen]

The only betrayal is Arafat's, who has profited at the expense of the people he purports to defend. It is time for Arafat to step down, and to take his gang of sycophants with him. Arafat is not the man to lead the Palestinians towards independence!

Arafat: Abu Mazen has betrayed the Palestinian people
By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem
12 July 2003

There were signs of an intensifying power struggle for the Palestinian leadership after it emerged yesterday that the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, had criticised his Prime Minister, Abu Mazen, in an extraordinary outburst during a meeting with a senior United Nations official.

Mr Arafat accused Abu Mazen of "betraying the interests of the Palestinian people" and, according to a report in Ha'aretz newspaper yesterday, asked: "How does he dare to stand next to an Israeli flag and next to Sharon and to act friendly with a man whose history is known to all the world?"

Reliable sources said the quotations were not accurate - but that they did reflect Mr Arafat's attitude at the meeting where he had spoken out against Abu Mazen in a fury.

The jockeying for position within the Palestinian Authority (PA) is weakening Abu Mazen in the midst of talks with Israel over implementing theroad-map peace plan. Already this week he has had to postpone a meeting with Mr Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, because he was coming under such heavy criticism from the Fatah ruling party's central committee - one of the main centres of power in the PA.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=423816

[Darranar]

1. I completely agree about Arafat...

he must step down.

[Herschel]

4. Darranar, my friend

If I may note this here, please reconsider your support of Dennis Kucinich. He is not pro-Israel. Please consider Joe Lieberman.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Lieberman may be a racist!

According to the following story, posted earlier in GD, Lieberman supported a racist anti-Latino proposition in California and has spoken well of an author that has suggested that Blacks are genetically inferior to whites:

Holy Joe, Corporate Joe, G.I. Joe
Will the real Senator Lieberman please stand up?
by Doug Ireland

As Joe Lieberman spoke at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH forum for presidential contenders last month, the overwhelmingly black audience clapped when he quoted Martin Luther King Jr. Yet how many would have applauded if they’d known that the candidate from the Nutmeg State was a fan of the author of The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, which promoted the junk-science-for-bigots theory that blacks are genetically inferior to whites? How many realized that he had declared affirmative action to be “un-American,” called on the Democrats to abandon it and supported a California ballot initiative to ban it — all of which once caused the Rev. Jesse Jackson to travel to New Haven for a rally to denounce “Jesse Helms–Lieberman deals”? “We submit to the senator of this state,” Jackson roared in 1995, “that we have marched too long, and have died too young. We have been to too many funerals to turn back now! No, Mr. Lieberman, we are moving forward!” As recently as 1998, Lieberman’s Senate voting was so bad that the NAACP gave him a “D” rating on its report card.

This is just part of the record that Lieberman now tries to run away from. Most of the mainstream press corps keeps presenting a sanitized version of Lieberman’s bio, but some of the things he’d rather forget are well worth remembering now that he’s a national candidate.

On March 9, 1995, in remarks at the National Press Club, as chairman of the pro-corporate Democratic Leadership Council, Lieberman denounced the case for affirmative action as “an un-American argument because it’s based on averages, not individuals,” and went on to praise Ward Connerly’s Proposition 209, the misnamed “California Civil Rights Initiative,” which outlawed affirmative action: “I can’t see how I could be opposed to it, because it basically is a statement of American values.” The year before, the New Haven Advocate’s excellent Paul Bass — who’s covered Lieberman for 22 years — wrote, “After meeting with racist scholar Charles Murray, Lieberman promoted Murray’s idea of taking children away from mothers on welfare and putting them in new government-run orphanages (rather than, for instance, boosting support for agencies seeking to keep together families in crisis).”

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/34/news-ireland.php

Posted in GD by jos:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=26839&mesg_id=26839&listing_type=search

[Herschel]

6. Opposing affirmative action

Does not make one a racist.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Yes, it does!

Opposition to Affirmative Action is a favorite past time of Republicans, and their use of the inflammatory (and misleading) charge of "quotas."

Opposition to affirmative action is a form of stealth racism, like the "English as official language" efforts of the righwing in the mid-1990s.

[Herschel]

10. Please!

All you offer is many Republicans oppose it...therefore opposing it is racist?

[IndianaGreen]

12. Yes, opposition to affirmative action is rooted in racism

Please refer to my post #11 (the Dean statement of affirmative action).

I am sure that the supporters of Kucinich will be more than happy to post his support for affirmative action.

[Herschel]

14. Silly talk

By what definition of racism?

[IndianaGreen]

11. Howard Dean on Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action

Dean Statement on University of Michigan Decisions

I am delighted that the Supreme Court has upheld the principle of affirmative action in education. This was a victory for the civil rights of all Americans. The Bush Administration had urged the Court to reverse course in the nation’s historic march to equality, but the Court’s majority wisely refused to do so.

When President Bush used the inflammatory word “quota” to describe the Michigan program, I criticized him for distorting the facts. Now, the Supreme Court has rejected that misleading label. It is time for the President to stop using code words that divide Americans by race, gender, income and sexual orientation.

As President, I would pursue policies that encourage racial diversity on college campuses because I know that diversity serves important goals -- it produces benefits for all students, and for society as a whole. The Supreme Court decision clears the way for policies that advance both equity and excellence.

In her majority opinion Justice O'Connor suggests that race-sensitive affirmative action will no longer be necessary in 25 years. If Justice O'Connor is saying that these programs should fade away when they are no longer needed, I agree wholeheartedly. If she is predicting that the need will disappear within 25 years, I hope she's right, but we should wait and see. If she is setting a deadline, regardless of realities, then she is mistaken, and perhaps a future Court will make an adjustment.

But even now, with the ink barely dry on the Court’s decision, extreme opponents of affirmative action are promising to make the dismantling of these programs a litmus test for Supreme Court nominations. President Bush should speak out against such demands from his right flank. He should commit himself now to seek nominees who will stand in the mainstream, committed to progress not rollback.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_affirmative

[Herschel]

13. Please explain

How this shows oppostion to affirmative action is racist.

[IndianaGreen]

15. The Kucinich statement explains that even better

(Statement issued by Rep. Kucinich and Rep. Barbara Lee, co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, 4/1/03)

Affirmative action is necessary, affirmative action is right, and affirmative action must be preserved.

For the first time since Brown v. Board of Education, which opened up educational opportunities for millions of Americans, our public schools are becoming increasingly segregated by race.

In our cities, indices of black-white segregation suggest extreme separation of minorities far beyond the levels reported in other multi-racial societies such as Brazil, Canada, Australia, and the UK. In fact, the only other nation where minority segregation indices routinely exceed those reported in the United States was the Union of South Africa under apartheid.

Segregation in our cities leads to dire consequences in the educational environment for minorities. High minority school districts receive far less in state and local educational funding than districts that have predominantly white students.

America's diversity is strength, not a weakness, and it is absolutely critical that we nurture programs that enhance opportunities for those who have been historically left behind. To do nothing, to abolish affirmative action, is to use de jure means to fall back into the de facto segregation of the past, which made a mockery of democracy, equality, liberty and justice - the very values on which this nation was founded.

Affirmative action is still essential because a truly level playing field is still an elusive goal, not a reality. Today, we stand united in our support of affirmative action and the University of Michigan. Our nation is at a critical junction; the Supreme Court must not send our nation back into some of the darkest moments in our history, but instead lead our nation to a fair and just future.

(Statement was released on the day the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the University of Michigan affirmative action case. Lee and Kucinich joined 110 Members of Congress in signing a friend of the court brief supporting the University.)

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_affiraction.htm

[Herschel]

25. Still

You offer no support for your position. Can you show me prominent Democrats that say opposition to affirmative action is racist? I think we know the answer.

[Classical_Liberal]

26. In my opinion it is. It means overlooking discrimination in American

society. For instance the American Enterprise Institute that launched this Jihad on Affirmative Actiona also published "The Bell Curve" which was blatantly racist. Lieberman's affiliation with so many AEI people is disturbing.

[Darranar]

24. Shouldn't affirmitive action...

be based on income, not race? It makes more sense to me.

[Classical_Liberal]

27. I think income standards can be phased in to a degree, and should

.

[Cassandra]

30. Some Jews are against quotas...

because they remember quotas being used to discriminate against them, long before affirmative action really involved blacks at all. I wonder how much of that is racism and how much is a knee-jerk reaction to the words used.

[tinnypriv]

21. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

n/t

[Darranar]

23. I support Kucinich...

not for his pro-Palestinian stance, which I admit exists, but for his other issues. His domestic opinions are excellent; on abortion, Medicare, etc. His foreign policy is good, also; he plans to do some serious cooperating instead of Bush's "with-us-or-against-us" stance that simply alienates everyone else. He intends to cut military spending, something badly needed in our country.

Though I can agree with Leiberman on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, his policies are questionable. Like Kerry, his stance on the Iraq war, a very important issue, was rather indecisive, which is not a sign of a great leader. His views on censorship I disagree with; people can think for themselves, and can distinguish between reality and fantasy. Simply put, he has a conservative tilt to his issues that I don't like.

[bemildred]

2. I am sure one of the reasons Arafat is still alive

is because he is such a singularly inept leader, except when
it comes to lining his pockets and tooting his own horn.

[IndianaGreen]

3. This is also why Marwan Barghouti is being railroaded by Israel

Barghouti is the sort of leader that threatens the established order in Israel and in Palestine. This is why he is being tried on trumped up charges of terrorism because he is the Palestinian version of Jomo Kenyatta and Nelson Mandela.

The Israelis learned a trick or two from the British colonials!

[drdon326]

7. "Marwan Barghouti is being railroaded "???

You never cease to amaze me.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Thank you!

I enjoy amazing you!

:evilgrin:

[bemildred]

16. Yeah, I thought so too.

Otherwise how to explain the elaborate "trial" when
a Hellfire missile or two would do the job? There is
obviously something that needs to be discredited there.

[Gimel]

17. the trial

is held before the world. If the charges are "trumped up", tell it to the victims families. If the leader of the Palestinians is not behind the many terror attacks, are we to assume someone else is? Or perhaps they didn't happen? Perhaps Fatah is not a terrorist organization?

<snip>
But the 42-year-old is also one of the Palestinians' most prominent political leaders and has been tipped by some as a credible successor to Yasser Arafat.

He has been a major figure in the current intifada, or uprising, spurring on Palestinians in speeches at funerals and demonstrations.

The Al-Aqsa Brigade has carried out several deadly attacks against Israelis

On 1 April, Al Aqsa possibly sealed his fate when it issued a statement claiming them as their leader.

The group has carried out some of the most devastating attacks on Israel this year, including including the latest suicide bombing at the Mahane Yehuda open-air market in Jerusalem, which killed six Israelis.
<snip>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/profiles/1473585.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2921979.stm


The above is from the BBC, biased as it is against Israel.

This is from a Free Marwan Barghouti website:

<snip>
110. Therefore, the Fourth Geneva Convention, including its Article 49, is customary law. As a result, it applies to the territories that were occupied in 1967 and to the acts of the State of Israel as the occupying power.

111. The Respondent will argue that he was forcibly, and against his will, transferred, by soldiers of the occupying power, from the occupied territory to the territory of the occupying state. This transfer violates international customary law, which is also binding on the Israeli judicial system. Whereas the court is not authorized to adjudicate the matter of a person brought before it in violation of the fundamental norms of international law, particularly in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the court is also not authorized to try him.

<snip>

139. The Respondent denies that he committed any offense. However, if he indeed committed the acts attributed to him in the indictment, which he denies as mentioned above, he is entitled to the status of prisoner of war. As such, and in accordance with international law, he is immune from prosecution by the occupying power.

<snip>
The Indictment:
15. The indictment filed against the Respondent alleges that he violated seven provisions of the penal law, including membership in a terrorist organization, activity in a terrorist organization, murder, complicity to murder, solicitation to murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit a felony.

<snip>


http://www.freebarghouti.org/case.html#4


This, rather far-fetched imo, appeal to international law is simply an attempt to wiesel out of the charges, claiming that he was illeally arrested and therefore should go free, despite the charges.

[bemildred]

18. I know all this.

I didn't say the charges were "trumped up". I am
sure he has "been behind" various "terrorist" activities.
It's not secret.

I just pointed out that the formalities of a trial are often
skipped in cases like his is said to be. That is no accident,
they want to make an example of and discredit him.

[Gimel]

19. Formalities

It seems that in cases like this, it is common to claim no jurisdiction, or illegal arrest. He doesn't accept a court-appointed attorney. Rejects the charges completely. The trial may introduce evidence. Then what? Is that "trumped up" because he doesn't participate in any way? Short and sweet.

[bemildred]

20. I really don't care about the legal games played by either side. nt

[tinnypriv]

22. Arafat is a joke and a thug

He and Mazen have betrayed the Palestinian people. Arafat more so.

[Ani Yun Wiya]

28. Before Arafat...

The Palestinians were derided as "leaderless", and therfore not worthy of "nationhood".
Without Arafat where would they be now?

[Gimel]

29. Many more alive. nt