ABU MAZEN, POTENTIAL PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER:

ARMED INTIFADA AGAINST ISRAEL A MISTAKE

Leslie Susser, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, http://www.jta.org/index.asp

JERUSALEM, Oct. 1 (JTA)—“…Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, the Arafat deputy mooted as a potential prime minister, continues to speak about non-violence and chart a new political course.  “There were many mistakes in this last intifada, and turning to the use of arms against Israel was the decisive one,” Abbas said in an interview this week on LBC, a Lebanese television channel.   Turning the intifada into a peaceful, popular struggle is “the only way to convince the world of the justice of our cause,” Abbas said.

So while some Palestinians may try to escalate violence to exploit Israel’s current constraints, others are talking nonviolent resistance, hoping to exploit American goodwill after a strike on Baghdad.  America may then want to rebuild ties with the Arab world by pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, and a nonviolent Palestinian leadership would be in a much better position to press the advantage, the thinking goes. Indeed, according to unconfirmed reports, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators already are looking ahead to the day after an attack on Iraq and are talking peace in a secret channel that bypasses Arafat. Sharon’s representative is said to be outgoing Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy.”

(Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.)

Source:  NEWS ANALYSIS:  Israel fears withdrawal signals dangerous restraint before Iraq war, By Leslie Susser

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