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Bush To Meet 20 Palestinian Figures, As Opposition Lobbies For U.S. Support
CAIRO,
July 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The American consulate in
Jerusalem has sent invitations and air tickets to 20 prominent
Palestinian figures to meet with U.S. President George w. Bush in
Washington during the next few days, Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram said
Saturday, quoting Palestinian sources.
The
sources said that these figures include members of the legislative
council who have already flown to Washington, the paper said.
Israeli
newspaper Maariv said that U.S. efforts prepared a ‘secret’ list
of Palestinians officials with whom the US is prepared to negotiate
and who will also form an alternative leadership, said Al Ahram.
Meanwhile,
the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz reported Saturday, that
one of Arafat’s opposition, Omar Karsou, a Palestinian banker,
originally from Ramallah currently residing in New York, met 10
days ago with U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney and his senior
advisors as well as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in
Colorado.
The
paper said that Karsou, moved from Ramallah with his family to New
York fearing for his life and established a civic movement called
“Democracy in Palestine” which he claims will establish a
“government system that is transparent and reliable, free of the
presence and the influence of Arafat”, the paper reported.
"The
meeting with Vice President Cheney was the climax of a hard year of
preparations; it has been a relentless process of buildup, of meetings
and presentations, which finally paid off. This high-profile meeting
encouraged us enormously; we are finally being recognized," the
paper quoted Karsou saying.
Karsou
says he represents a sizable but silent group in Palestinian society -
including professionals and businessmen - preaching for months for the
removal of Arafat, reported Ha’aretz.
“He
has quickly gained a reputation as someone with a radical and
progressive outlook. Had his words not come from the mouth of the son
of Palestinian refugees, they could have been attributed to a member
of the Israeli right,” said Ha’aretz.
The
concept behind the Oslo Accords was, in his opinion, entirely off the
mark. “Israel knowingly encouraged a corrupt and murderous regime
headed by a secular dictator, in the hope that he would keep dangerous
Islamic fundamentalism at bay,” the paper said, quoting Karsou.
"Israel
cannot rely on a corrupt Palestinian leadership, whose only interest
is to stay in power," Karsou said.
According
to Karsou Arafat created dozens of governmental ministries, most with
overlapping responsibilities, all of them answering to him directly;
he established dozens of security organizations, the most important
and effective ones were divided into two; one in Gaza, the other in
the West Bank, to make sure that no one gains too much power or
influence.
He
said that the “Palestinian Legislative Council criticized Arafat's
style of leadership sharply, issued reports on corruption and called
for the resignation of Arafat's people - the only Arab parliament that
dared to do such a thing - but of course he didn't listen. He ignored
them completely."
Karsou says that Palestinian society fell victim to the manipulation
of vested interests - first and foremost the PA - that exploit the
people's naivete, and the PA's absolute control of the media and the
education system, to channel the despair and the frustration into
actions against Israel, reported Haaretz.
Meanwhile,
according to a poll carried out by Israeli daily newspaper Maariv on
Friday, most Israelis favor expelling Arafat from the Palestinian
territories and waiting for a new generation of Palestinian leaders to
negotiate a peace deal, an Israeli newspaper poll said Friday, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Maariv surveyed 590 people over the last week following Bush’s
speech that demanded the Palestinians replace Arafat in exchange for
Washington's support in building an independent Palestinian state
within three years.
Fifty-eight
percent said they favored expelling Arafat, which has been an option
proposed by some hard-line members of Israel's national unity
coalition.
Twenty-eight percent said they did not favor expelling the Palestinian
leader, while another 14 percent did not express an opinion.
To
the question whether Israel should negotiate with the current
Palestinian leadership or wait until the emergence of a new generation
of leaders, 69 percent said they preferred the second option.
Twenty percent said Israel should negotiate with this generation of
Palestinian leaders, while 11 percent said they had no opinion.
Meanwhile, 56 percent said they backed the Middle East policy vision
laid out by Bush in his June 24 speech, which also included calls for
Israel to eventually withdraw its forces from the occupied territories
and stop building Jewish settlements.
Another 24 percent said they opposed the U.S. leader's plan for the
region, while another 20 percent said they had no opinion. The poll
had a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
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