Is Nusseibeh A Moderate?

The White House yesterday condemned Israel’s decision to shut down the offices of Yasser Arafat’s man in Jerusalem, Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that while Israel’s recent actions such as easing closures on PA residents and removing Yesha outposts were \"positive,\" he dubbed yesterday’s move “counterproductive.\" While many have labeled Nusseibeh a “moderate”, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres who recently praised Nusseibeh as being \"courageous,\" the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) says that Nusseibeh is actually a longtime supporter of violence against Israel. A ZOA press release states, \"Sari Nusseibeh is an extremist in moderate clothing. He has always supported violence against Israel, he spied for Saddam during the Gulf War [as reported yesterday by Arutz-7], and he called America\'s liberation of Kuwait an attempt by ‘the forces of aggression’ to ‘humiliate the Arab world and rub the Arabs\' nose in the dirt.’\"



The ZOA also notes that in 1993 Nusseibeh told the Arab newspaper Al Fajr, \"Military means against Israel are vindicated by Israeli practices,\" and that he supports \"the use of force against Israelis as a means of support of our negotiating position.\" In a 1986 article in the Jerusalem Times, Nusseibeh described Israel as \"a racist Zionist entity,\" and then laid out his three-stage plan: consolidating the Arab position within Israel, increasing the Arab population, leading finally to, \"the stage of a Palestinian democratic and secular state, achieved as and when Arab Palestinians naturally become a majority.\"