<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[REVOLUTION FEVER ACROSS THE MIDDLE&nbsp;EAST]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p class="byline"> Posted  			by desertpeace			at PS.HADNEWS.COM on Thursday, 			February 17, 			2011 			at 7:43 am. </p>
<div class="content">
<div>
<div id="theatre">
<div id="wapolabs_translateDiv">
<div id="translateDivGrey">
<p><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">“Freedom  Wins! 2 Down, 20 to go!”</span></em></p>
</div>
</div>
<p><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> </span></em></p>
<div><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> </span></div>
<div id="art-mast">
<div>
<h1><span style="color:#808000;font-family:Verdana;font-size:large;">The Ripple Effect</span></h1>
<h2><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">From Algeria to Iran and the countries in between,  a look at how revolution fever is spreading across the Middle East. </span></h2>
</div>
</div>
<div id="art-body">
<div>
<div>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/110215_palestine2.jpg" alt="" width="625" height="394" /> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-size:small;"><strong>Palestine: …Actually, It Just Highlights Their  Bankruptcy</strong></span> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><em>By Jared Malsin</em> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">If  Palestinians were to stage an uprising against  their own authoritarian  leaders, Ramallah’s al-Manara Square might be their  equivalent of  Cairo’s Tahrir Square. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Palestinians  celebrated news of the overthrow of  Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak in  al-Manara on Friday night, Feb. 11 — a brave  decision, given that their  protest was in violation of an </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=356917"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">explicit order</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> by the Palestinian Authority (PA) banning demonstrations in  solidarity with the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">In Ramallah  that night, Palestinians showed a  willingness to defy the PA rarely  seen in the areas of the West Bank it  controls. Civil society activist  Omar Barghouti was one of those who joined the  Ramallah gathering,  which he called a “wonderful celebration.” He held a sign  reading  “Freedom Wins! 2 Down, 20 to go!” Fireworks could be seen over several   West Bank towns. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">As publics  throughout the Middle East follow  Egypt’s lead in demanding  accountability from their governments, the PA  figureheads in Ramallah —  President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam  Fayyad — have good  reason to be alarmed. Long before the Egyptian revolution,  the PA faced  serious questions about its legitimacy from Palestinians who   increasingly view it as complicit in Israel’s occupation of their land. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The PA initially sided with the Mubarak regime when  the Tahrir uprising broke out, </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=355771"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">sending</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> security forces to </span><a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/01/30/palestinian-authority-disrupts-egypt-solidarity-protest-ramallah"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">crush</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> pro-democracy protests in the West Bank. Senior PA officials </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358558"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">vilified</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> the Egyptian demonstrators, with Abbas aide Tayeb Abdel-Rahim making   dark allusions to the protesters’ “suspicious allegiances” to  “international and  regional forces,” a reference to the laughable  theory that the uprising was a  foreign or Islamist conspiracy. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Since then,  the PA and PLO have adopted a more  moderate, more conciliatory tone,  responding to the present demands for  accountability with three  measures: the </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=359346"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">resignation</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> of chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/middleeast/15palestine.html"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">dissolution</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> of the cabinet, and a call for local </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">elections</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> in July and parliamentary and presidential elections by September,  though no dates have been set. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">In the long run, none of these measures is likely  to rescue Abbas and Fayyad. A </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=210471"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">similar cabinet  reshuffle</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> in May 2009 resulted in little  substantive change. Any new cabinet  would also continue to face questions in  terms of legality: Fayyad’s  unelected government derives its mandate from a 2007  presidential  emergency order of doubtful constitutionality. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Erekat’s resignation, coming in response to Al  Jazeera and the<em> Guardian</em>‘s release of peace process documents known as  the “</span><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Palestine Papers</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">,” was more significant because of his seniority in the PLO.  But this move, and the subsequent </span><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jYJAr3AZD9gdt08n_y-CZhyzjIUw?docId=CNG.26f85a77fe573d0130a10eb475c1a65e.8d1"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">closure</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> of his </span><a href="http://www.nad-plo.org/"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Negotiations Support Unit</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">,  could prove problematic. If direct control over negotiations reverts to   Abbas, as some Palestinian officials privately predict it will, this  would  further centralize power with the president. It would also  further blur the  lines between the PA, whose authority is limited to  the West Bank and Gaza, and  the PLO, an organization intended to  represent all 10 million Palestinians —  including refugees across the  Middle East and the world. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">The PA’s call for elections is also not viable  because the PA </span><a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=359384"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">never stood a chance</span></a><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> of convincing Hamas, which governs Gaza, to accept it.  Since 2007, the  group has argued that political and administrative  reconciliation must  precede elections. In the new reality following events in  Egypt, Hamas  is even less likely to compromise on this point, viewing the PA’s   position as weakened. To be fair, Abbas’s Fatah movement and the PA are   hamstrung from striking a new unity deal with Hamas due, it is widely  believed,  to opposition from the United States and its other  international backers. Any  deal with Hamas would risk Western donors  canceling the funding the PA needs to  survive. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">This lack of  diplomatic independence is another of  the sad truths that alienate the  PA from its own people. In the wake of Egypt’s  revolution, Abbas and  Fayyad will face calls for deep and radical reforms —  including their  own resignations — and demands for a viable liberation strategy   vis-à-vis Israel. If they do not heed these calls, they could soon face  their  own Mubarak moment in al-Manara Square. </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;">Written <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/15/the_ripple_effect?page=0,7">FOR </a></span><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/15/the_ripple_effect?page=0,7"><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:medium;"> </span></a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><a href="http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/category/revolution/"><br />
</a></div>
<p><a href="http://ps.hadnews.com/revolution-fever-across-the-middle-east.htm">REVOLUTION FEVER ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST at PS.HADNEWS.COM</a>.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i0.wp.com/www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_images/110215_palestine2.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>