Front Page
Politics
Economy
International
Sports
Society
Culture
Videos
Newspapers
Ahram Online
Al-Ahram Weekly
Albawaba
Almasry Alyoum
Amwal Al Ghad
Arab News Agency
Bikya Masr
Daily News Egypt
FilGoal
The Egyptian Gazette
Youm7
Subject
Author
Region
f
t
مصرس
Poverty reaches 44% in Lebanon – World Bank
Turkish c. bank holds rates at 50%
Eurozone growth hits year high amid recovery
US set to pour fresh investments in Kenya
Taiwanese Apple,Nvidia supplier forecasts 10% revenue growth
EFG Holding revenue surges 92% to EGP 8.6bn in Q1 2024, unveils share buyback program
Egyptian military prepared for all threats, upholds national security: Defence Minister
Philip Morris International acquires 14.7% stake in Egypt's largest cigarette maker Eastern Company
Gold prices slide 0.3% on Thursday
US Biogen agrees to acquire HI-Bio for $1.8b
Palestinian resistance movements fight back against Israeli occupation in Gaza
Body of Iranian President Raisi returns to Tehran amidst national mourning
Egypt secures $38.8bn in development financing over four years
Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire discuss enhanced water cooperation at World Water Forum
President Al-Sisi reaffirms Egypt's dedication to peace in Gaza
Egypt to build 58 hospitals by '25
Egypt's Health Minister monitors progress of national dialysis system automation project
Giza Pyramids host Egypt's leg of global 'One Run' half-marathon
Madinaty to host "Fly Over Madinaty" skydiving event
Nouran Gohar, Diego Elias win at CIB World Squash Championship
Coppola's 'Megalopolis': A 40-Year Dream Unveiled at Cannes
World Bank assesses Cairo's major waste management project
K-Movement Culture Week: Decade of Korean cultural exchange in Egypt celebrated with dance, music, and art
Empower Her Art Forum 2024: Bridging creative minds at National Museum of Egyptian Civilization
Egyptian consortium nears completion of Tanzania's Julius Nyerere hydropower project
Sweilam highlights Egypt's water needs, cooperation efforts during Baghdad Conference
Swiss freeze on Russian assets dwindles to $6.36b in '23
Prime Minister Madbouly reviews cooperation with South Sudan
Egyptian public, private sectors off on Apr 25 marking Sinai Liberation
Debt swaps could unlock $100b for climate action
Amal Al Ghad Magazine congratulates President Sisi on new office term
Financial literacy becomes extremely important – EGX official
Euro area annual inflation up to 2.9% – Eurostat
BYD، Brazil's Sigma Lithium JV likely
UNESCO celebrates World Arabic Language Day
Motaz Azaiza mural in Manchester tribute to Palestinian journalists
Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban
It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game
Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights
Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines
Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19
Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers
Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled
We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga
Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June
Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds
Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go
Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform
Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.
OK
The American connection
Graham Usher
Published in
Al-Ahram Weekly
on 14 - 06 - 2001
Yasser Arafat has accepted a US brokered cease-fire agreement. Now he will have to accept the judgement of his people, writes Graham Usher from
Jerusalem
After five days of pressured diplomacy -- and a near abandonment of the task -- at around midnight on Tuesday CIA Director George Tenet finally got what he came for. "President Yasser Arafat and George Tenet arrived at an agreement on the US proposal [for a cease-fire] on the basis of recommendations from the Mitchell report," announced Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu-Rudeineh after the Palestinian leader's last meeting with Tenet in Ramallah.
It is not yet clear what forced Arafat to accept a proposal all are aware runs counter to everything the Palestinians' eight-month Intifada was supposedly about. But it appears to boil down to the age-old Arab fear of losing the American connection.
The Palestinians had three main objections to Tenet's cease-fire plan. The first was the demand for an absolute cessation of "violence" prior to any movement by
Israel
to lift its blockades on the occupied territories or withdraw its forces to positions occupied before the outbreak of the uprising on 28 September.
The second was preservation of the so-called "security zones"
Israel
has created during the Intifada to separate Palestinians communities and Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. Third -- and most controversially -- the insistence that the PA "immediately" arrests some 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists from a list supplied by
Israel
.
"These are
Israeli
demands," commented one PA official, but it was Tenet who refused to budge from them. This became clear to the Palestinians after the collapse of an acrimonious meeting between
Israeli
and PA security officials in
Jerusalem
on Monday.
From that moment on, enormous pressure was exerted by the US, the European Union and several Arab states to impress on Arafat that Tenet's proposal was a take-it-or-leave-it document, with the consequences of leaving it too dire to contemplate. Arafat's room for manoeuvre narrowed further on Tuesday when an "unenthusiastic" Ariel Sharon "accepted [Tenet's] plan to see whether it can lead to a reduction of violence."
But the last nail came on Tuesday when Tenet reportedly threatened to leave the region amid a torrent of
Israeli
press leaks that he held Arafat responsible for the failure of his mission. Faced with this abandonment, Arafat hauled Tenet back to the meeting in Ramallah and agreed to Tenet's proposal "with reservations". The US responded with all the grace of a colonial governor. "The US is pleased a work-plan [for the cease-fire] has been agreed by both sides," said a State Department official yesterday.
The nuts and bolts of the "work-plan" were hammered together yesterday in a security meeting between
Israel
and the PA. This will be followed by visits to
Israel
and the occupied territories by EU policy representative Javier Solana and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who on Tuesday vowed to "seize this fleeting opportunity" for peace.
Arafat is also hoping the two men "who had exerted pressure on him to declare the cease-fire will exert the same pressure on
Israel
to remove the causes of the violence or at least respect in practice the other parts of the Mitchell report," said Palestinian political analyst Ghassan Khatib.
But Arafat's real problem is how to sell the cease-fire to his people. The measure of this task was demonstrated not only by the 1,000 or so Palestinians -- from all factions -- who surrounded his Ramallah headquarters on Tuesday night under the banner of "Yes to the Intifada, No to the cease-fire". The difficulties were further underlined by veiled threats from Hamas leaders that should the PA arrest their men under the CIA's dictate they would "again leave Arafat and strike
Israel
".
Perhaps the greatest challenge is Palestinian public opinion, the current temper of which was starkly revealed in a poll released on 12 June by Birzeit University. The poll found 78 per cent support continuing the Intifada, 71 per cent are against any ending of the uprising in return for Mitchell's recommendation that
Israel
freeze all settlement construction and 74 per cent support suicide operations.
It also found that Arafat's Fatah movement had slumped to a popularity rating of 23 per cent while the combined popularity of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had grown to 24 per cent.
Arafat's sole succour was that his own standing in Palestinian eyes had increased, registering a 58 per cent positive rating for his performance in the Intifada. He will need every ounce of that popularity to explain how the terms of a CIA cease-fire square with the national aspirations of his people and the death, in eight months of resistance, of nearly 500 of them.
Recommend this page
Related stories:
The struggle for Mitchell
All hands on the peace process
Palestinian war of independence
A symptomatic approach
Walking on a precipice 7 - 13 June 2001
Under siege 7 - 13 June 2001
See Intifada in focus
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
Send a letter to the Editor
Clic
here
to read the story from its source.
Related stories
Things to come
Splinting the reeds
Shutting out the light
Walking on a precipice
War by instalments
Report inappropriate advertisement