In 2003, John proved himself to be the playful sort

In 2003, John proved himself to be the playful sort, ultimately mentioning “Israel” on December 30. I was

doing the countdown by e-mail, maybe it was a mistake to include him on the circulation list. This time, no

meddling, let history takes its course.

Some interesting information is coming out on the Palestinian elections in the wake of Marwan Barghouti

withdrawing his bid for the PA presidency. Andrew Schamess has this intriguing bit:

On Thursday, Barghouti made a suprise announcement that he would run an independent campaign for President.

This threw everybody into a tizzy until he called it off late Thursday night. The best report on this, I

thought, was on National Public Radio. The trade-off, it appears, was that Fatah will hold new elections for

its ruling Revolutionary Council, for the first time in fifteen years. This will certainly give the younger

generation greater power in the organization.

What will this mean for Palestinian policies? Firstly, the younger generation has pressed for more efficient

mbt sport and an end to patronage and corruption in the Palestinian Authority. Secondly, those raised on armed

struggle against an oppressive regime are not likely to lay down their arms and accept whatever compromise

suits Israel’s purposes. As Barghouti put it, he stands for resistance and negotiation; Abbas for negotiation

without resistance. A third possible consequence, if Barghouti and his constituents are successful, is that a

reinvigorated Fatah will regain its credibility among disaffected Palestinians who have gravitated tombt sportd

Hamas in the past decade.