Within the PA, too, there are objections to the document, largely because of the "concessions" it makes on the so-called right of return for Arab refugees of 1948. Tanzim terrorist leader Hussein a-Sheikh, for instance, said this morning that no one authorized the PA representatives to cede the right of return. Despite these objections, and despite last-minute hesitations - real or staged - by Arafat as to whether or not to allow his delegation to take part, the PA will in fact participate this afternoon. In fact, the group will be headed by Arafat's own representative, Jibril Rajoub.
Dr. David Bukay of Haifa University's Political Science Department was asked on Arutz-7 today his opinion of yesterday's last-minute PA machinations. His response:
"What we saw is that Arafat proved once again that nothing in the Middle East happens without him, and that he runs the entire political structure of the PA. Only a master performer like he can be stuck in the Mukata while at the same time running the PA down to the last detail, and also activate Jewish collaborators like the Trojan Horse of Yossi Beilin, and also show the failure of Israel's government in saying that he is irrelevant."
Asked to elaborate on the Trojan Horse image, Bukay said,
"This is not only Beilin, but Beilinism - a phenomenon that must be studied in the context of cognitive dissonance. Beilinism is a group of people who don't want to accept reality; a group for whom there is a great divide between reality and their values and comprehension of reality; undermining of democracy; and more.
"Regarding Arafat yesterday, there are three possibilities: it was a great show to help his Trojan Horse friends in Israel by pretending that there are objections on the Palestinian side as well - even though, as I said before, he is in charge of every single thing that goes on there; even the Palestinians say that Abu Ala doesn't go to the bathroom without Arafat's permission. This is one possibility. Another is that the PA side truly doesn't accept any concession at all regarding the Right of Return to all of Israel - Jaffa, Haifa, etc, and that no Palestinian leader can give in even to an unofficial, unrepresentative group of Israelis on this matter. And the third possibility is that which I most subscribe to, and that is that this is just Arafat's typical way: every time Arafat signed an agreement, he always had a last-minute hesitation...
"In short, Arafat is very much in favor of the Geneva agreement, because it increases the arguments within Israel, and shows the Israeli political system at its all-time low point, etc...
"In general, it is very hard to comprehend how Israel has actually fallen for Arafat's tricks over these past ten years: In each agreement that he has signed, he has simply taken the same promises time after time, and recycled them - even with the same words: fight terror, stop incitement, collect weapons, etc. - and now again, the exact same thing, he signs and then does the same things, and we have [1,143] dead, and thousands of wounded, and nothing changes. This is part of Arafat's mastery."
Dr. David Bukay of Haifa University's Political Science Department was asked on Arutz-7 today his opinion of yesterday's last-minute PA machinations. His response:
"What we saw is that Arafat proved once again that nothing in the Middle East happens without him, and that he runs the entire political structure of the PA. Only a master performer like he can be stuck in the Mukata while at the same time running the PA down to the last detail, and also activate Jewish collaborators like the Trojan Horse of Yossi Beilin, and also show the failure of Israel's government in saying that he is irrelevant."
Asked to elaborate on the Trojan Horse image, Bukay said,
"This is not only Beilin, but Beilinism - a phenomenon that must be studied in the context of cognitive dissonance. Beilinism is a group of people who don't want to accept reality; a group for whom there is a great divide between reality and their values and comprehension of reality; undermining of democracy; and more.
"Regarding Arafat yesterday, there are three possibilities: it was a great show to help his Trojan Horse friends in Israel by pretending that there are objections on the Palestinian side as well - even though, as I said before, he is in charge of every single thing that goes on there; even the Palestinians say that Abu Ala doesn't go to the bathroom without Arafat's permission. This is one possibility. Another is that the PA side truly doesn't accept any concession at all regarding the Right of Return to all of Israel - Jaffa, Haifa, etc, and that no Palestinian leader can give in even to an unofficial, unrepresentative group of Israelis on this matter. And the third possibility is that which I most subscribe to, and that is that this is just Arafat's typical way: every time Arafat signed an agreement, he always had a last-minute hesitation...
"In short, Arafat is very much in favor of the Geneva agreement, because it increases the arguments within Israel, and shows the Israeli political system at its all-time low point, etc...
"In general, it is very hard to comprehend how Israel has actually fallen for Arafat's tricks over these past ten years: In each agreement that he has signed, he has simply taken the same promises time after time, and recycled them - even with the same words: fight terror, stop incitement, collect weapons, etc. - and now again, the exact same thing, he signs and then does the same things, and we have [1,143] dead, and thousands of wounded, and nothing changes. This is part of Arafat's mastery."