Gary Fitleberg, December 30, 2004

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said it would back Mustafa Barghouti, a leading proponent of non-violence running in the election of Arafat's successor.

Mustafa is a distant cousin of jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti who pulled out of the presidential race this month.

The endorsement of Barghouti by the militant group behind anti-Israel terrorist acts highlighted a political shift after Arafat's death, as other militants have decided to back Abbas.

"We call on all members of the PFLP and the ‘Palestinian’ people to support and vote for Doctor Mustafa al-Barghouti," senior PFLP leader Rabah Muhana told a news conference in Gaza.

The PFLP, which has about 2 percent support in opinion polls, is a radical group in the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization led by Abbas and opposes peacemaking with Israel in contrast with Fatah, the PLO's mainstream faction.

Barghouti, running a distant second to Abbas in the Jan. 9 election race, is a prominent critic of Israeli army crackdowns in so-called "occupied territory" but, like Abbas, wants a halt to bloodshed and talks on another Arab "Palestinian" state (according to the British Mandate Arab "Palestine" is Jordan, formerly Transjordan) co-existing alongside Israel.

Muhana said the PFLP and Barghouti had agreed on key issues such as stressing a "right of return" of refugees to what is now Israel and rejecting any peace based on 1990s interim deals that did not require full Israeli withdrawal from so-called "occupied" areas.

Asked about being linked with a group that has killed Israelis in homicide bombings and assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister, Barghouti said he disagreed with some PFLP views but its move would foster Arab "Palestinian" unity after Arafat.

"We will give maximum effort to strengthen the popular (non-violent) nature of the struggle (for statehood). We will seek to unite the vision of struggle through dialogue. "(The PFLP endorsement) can be the start of a new democratic ‘Palestinian’ coalition," he told Reuters.

Political analyst Hani Habib said the PFLP move would improve Barghouti's showing by attracting a number of undecided voters, although not enough to upset Abbas.

It could also raise fear in Fatah, he said, that Islamists might back an independent like Barghouti "to at least prevent Abbas from achieving a big victory" that he needs for a popular mandate to rein in militants so he can negotiate with Israel.

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar, whose group rejected to field a candidate for the election, said members of the group were free to vote - a departure from a general boycott declared by another Hamas leader earlier this month.

"We asked nobody to go (vote) and nobody to boycott it. Everyone, even Hamas members, is free to either participate or not participate," Zahar said.

Hamas won some municipal elections last week and may run in parliamentary polls next year.

Imagine that the many new parts of the "Arab" Palestinan government will be led and ruled by extremist fanantical fundamentalists such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad in addition to the more "moderate" terrorist organization, controlled and dominated by Fatah, the PA/PLO and its so-called "preventative security forces" (subsidiaries of terror) such as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Force 17 and Tanzim.

Terrorists in "democratic elections" on their way to yet another Arab/Islamist, the twenty-third, corrupt dictatorship, human rights violator, ruthless repressive regime, state supporter of terrorism and tyranny.

Is this the world’s idea of a so-called "Road Map" to Middle East peace?

What a concept. What a nightmare.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2004 Gary Fitleberg