Arab politics -- Palestinians and Lebanese in particular -- are prosaically pronounced fiascoes, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed The historic movement of Palestinian aspiration for national liberation and statehood gained momentum this week with the assembling of the rank and file of Fateh delegates to the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The Fateh party of the late Yasser Arafat, has had a series of misfortunes and misadventures since the death in mysterious circumstances of its venerable leader. The Arab press has been quick to exploit the differences and squabbles among his followers and the demise of the once all-powerful Palestinian national liberation movement. Fateh managed under especially difficult circumstances to convene its first congress in Bethlehem after 20 years without meeting at all. However, Arab pundits derided the movement's bloated gerontocracy and the much discredited "old guard". Commentators dwelt at length on the colliding ego-driven agendas of Fateh leaders and especially the ambitious young firebrands. Names such as Marwan El-Bargouti, Jibril Hussein Al-Sheikh, and Nasser Al-Quodwa are considered rising stars. Ahmed Nasr, another "Young Turk" so to speak, denounced the elections of Fateh officials as fraudulent and unfair. Most pundits in the Arab press, however, seem to be in favour of a two-state solution. The rank and file of Fateh are angry young men and women who look on with derision and revulsion at the clownish behavior of the first ever congress of a liberation movement convened under the auspices of the occupation forces -- in this case Israeli -- and with Israel's blessing. The Bantustans of the West Bank are no place for a liberation movement's congress. Fateh needs to re-articulate its national platform or else it will continue to decline, most Arab commentators concurred. Marwan Barghouti was quoted in the daily Beirut-based Al-Akhbar was quoted as saying: "Fatah is suffering from the absence of its leadership, failures, mushrooming of corruption and gaining illicit money [by its figures]." Civic resistance needs a boost if the Palestinians are to liberate their land. Writing in the London-based daily pan-Arab Al-Hayat, Mohamed Salah wondered whether "there remains any hope in achieving positive results during the Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue after the leaders and figures of Fatah in Gaza are held hostage by Hamas and the leaders and figures of Hamas in the West Bank are taken hostage by the Palestinian Authority." This is yet another example of the sorry state of the Palestinians. The writer concludes that "expecting that the Palestinian state of affairs will return to what they were before June 2006 [when Hamas took over power in Gaza] is a far- fetched dream. It seems that all parties concerned with the Palestinian cause -- including Arab countries, the international community and the Palestinian themselves -- should ready themselves to continue searching for a solution of the Palestinian conundrum in light of the current status quo. And it seems that our best hope is that the current circumstances do not worsen." In much the same vein, other writers cast doubt on whether Fateh could put its act together. Writing in the London- based Al-Hayat, Abdallah Iskandar argues that "the main challenge facing Fatah in its sixth conference is whether it is able to restore its two attributes: Being an image of the Palestinian people and upholder of the mission of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Significant developments that have taken place since the signing of Oslo Agreements and the rise of the Palestinian Authority have undermined Fatah's image and the model it set." The writer added that "Fatah movement has transformed into a faction and is no longer reflecting the image of the Palestinian people. And with the absence of Yasser Arafat Hamas has risen to fill in the void created as a result of the demise of Fatah." Lebanese affairs fared no better. The Lebanese political scene is just as chaotic as that of the Palestinians. Writing in the daily pan-Arab Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Iyad Abu Shaqra reflected on the Lebanese conundrum, especially after Walid Junblat's withdrawal from the 14th March Coalition. He argued that "it was somehow weird that Saad Al-Hariri accepted the nomination for the prime ministry without securing real guarantees that facilitates his task. It was really weird taking the risk of accepting the nomination in light of unfavourable circumstances on the ground." He added that "Lebanon reflects all the contradictions and concerns of the Middle East region." What has become questionable is the propriety of diluting truth in for the sake of a sexy story in the Arab media. Writing in the daily Lebanese Al-Akhbar, Badr Al-Ibrahim tackled the issue of the Saudi man who talked about his sexual experiences on one of the programmes aired by the satellite channel LBC. This "indecent" incident led to the closure of the LBC bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the man is facing trial. "Regardless of the obscene way in which the man talked about his sexual experiences and his abuse of his position to have sexual experiences, he in fact did not talk about weird things. All what he said on LBC is widely known among Saudi youth. The only sin this man has committed was to talk about this issue on a satellite channel, a sin that will never be forgiven by a society living a double life -- one in secret and another in public." Obviously the forces of reaction are hard at work. "Hardliners [in Saudi Arabia] returned to imposing their influence these days by attacking 'destructive thoughts'." Who is to tell, though, what is and what is not "destructive"? Food for thought.
