Palestine's Rulers: The American Trio

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

The scene in Washington is striking — for Palestinians, and certainly for Israelis and Americans too — as the leading spokesmen of the struggling Palestinian people appear: Messrs. Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed Dahlan, and Salam Fayyad. Gone is the image of the revolutionary who spoke for the people of Palestine from the very heart of their tragedy, and in his place has come the man who speaks of Palestinian “rationality” from the restaurants of American hotels. The Palestinian situation has deteriorated so terrifyingly that the Americans now openly draw up official Palestinian policy and install into it whomever they please. It is they who appointed for us a finance minister, a prime minister, and a minister of internal security — with the ratification of the president of the Palestinian Authority and of the Palestinian council called “legislative.”

Sharon is a happy man watching this scene on his television screen, as the three of them meet at his table, or at the table of the master of the White House, discussing the affairs of the Palestinian cause. One of them has never known any attachment to Palestine, nor to any part of the Arab homeland, and has absolutely no connection to the nation’s causes; the second emerged from the alleys of poverty to make a profession of investor elegance at the people’s expense, so that he is now able to offer neckties and shoes as gifts to the nation’s executioners; as for the third, the search for the creed to which he truly belongs is still ongoing, and great question marks continue to dog him, especially when the President of America points to him as a hero in the fight against terrorism.

The one who holds our necks in his grip leaves us able to do no more than move our lips — whispering at times, and declaring openly at other times — about American-Israeli conspiracies. Ordinary people know what is happening and are well aware of how much we bow our cheeks to others, and the factions know this fully well, as do the parties and associations; yet our conduct, most of the time, falls in line with precisely what we claim to hate or reject, using justification as a way to escape the moral bind we are in. We know full well that it is the Americans who appointed these officials through Arafat and the Legislative Council, and yet we deal with them, saying that their appointment is illegitimate, while we negotiate with them and reach agreements with them. It is clear that in many respects we are no different from those Arab peoples who find it agreeable to submit to the will of the ruler and the foreigner alike.

The forces arrayed against us are many and immense, but it is we ourselves who opened our doors to outside interference and who have widened that opening over time. We have watched thieves slip into our house across the years, and we have watched Palestinians who ease their way in and their meddling, yet we were never capable of monitoring our own internal affairs in a practical way so as to seal the gaps. It is true that our capacity to confront the occupation has developed and improved, yet we have remained deficient on the internal front, in addressing the dysfunction that runs through our own limbs.

If the President of the Authority has permitted these three men to become our rulers, then the greater responsibility falls on the Legislative Council, which suffers, both fundamentally and circumstantially, from a problem of legitimacy. Most members of this Council are unaccountable, and have often acted according to their own personal interests, made their peace with corruption and practiced it in broad daylight, contradicted themselves on numerous occasions, and bent themselves to American policy. They are little more than an Arab council content to be a tool in the hands of others in exchange for the satisfaction of personal interests. These men must be held to account when the winds of change begin to blow.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “حكام فلسطين: الثلاثي الأمريكي” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.