After the death of Yassir Arafat and Abu Mazen's election, I was still relatively pessimistic. At the first sign of trouble, Sharon immediately cut off contacts and resorted to his usual macho blustering. And Abu Mazen himself has a very gray and slightly shady past. I thought we were just going through another repetition of the usual up and down cycles.
Recent events however, have changed my mind. I am now on the "cautiously optimistic" side of the fence.
From the moment he took office, Abu Mazen has acted like a man with a plan. Oblivious to Israeli blustering, he has followed the principles he clearly laid out in his election platform. Curb all Palestinian violence to pave the way for negotiations with Israel on an equal footing.
One can't ignore the political integrity and ingenuity of Abu Mazen's actions. He is calling Sharon and Bush's bluff. He is taking control, deploying security forces, curbing violence, doing everything the U.S. and Israel have demanded the Palestinians do as a pre-requisite for negotiations. Equally important, no matter how flawed the process, he was put into power by an election that Bush himself is holding up as an exemplar of democracy in the Middle East.
By his actions and election, it seems now that the day is not far off when Abu Mazen sits down to the negotiating table with Sharon. And since he has already shown himself a man of his word, he will lay out the basic Palestinian demands he declared as part of his platform: Israel's return to the '67 borders with minor adjustment, East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and recognizing the right of return as a moral principle. When he does, what can Sharon, or more importantly Bush, say then? They can't accuse him of being an extremist. They can't accuse him of being a despot. They can't deny that he is working for peace and an end to violence. Their hemming and hawing will lay bare the moral bankruptcy of their positions. People often say Sharon is a tactical genius. It looks like the wiley old man may have finally met his match.
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