Palestinian voters face moderate versus militant choice : Indybay

While PLO leader Mahmud Abbas represents a man with whom the Jewish state says it can do business, Israel's government has vowed to keep Fatah firebrand Marwan Barghouti behind bars for decades to come.

Barghouti, 45, the West Bank head of Arafat's mainstream Fatah faction and a main inspiration on the Palestinian street behind the intifada, has long been seen as the natural successor of the late leader.

Barghouti was condemned in June to five life terms in connection with deadly attacks inside Israel.

Palestinians see him as the only post-Arafat leader who enjoys sufficient legitimacy to both impose his will on militants and of being capable of talking to the Israelis.

Abbas, for his part, has been an outspoken critic of the "militarization" of the uprising.

On Nov. 28, Abbas pledged to stop anyone but Palestinian security forces from carrying weapons, whereas Barghouti has urged the Palestinians to keep up the four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation.

"We must retain our national unity, our commitment to the intifada and our commitment to real democracy and the establishment of law and order," he said in a message issued on the day of Arafat's death, on Nov. 11.

A Fatah co-founder in the 1960's, Abbas has long been convinced negotiations hold the key to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1974, he became the first high-ranking Palestinian to initiate contact with Israelis.

Barghouti has been known as a tough politician implacably opposed to the occupation and ready to mobilize public opinion - or according to the Israelis, armed resistance - against the Jewish state.

From the early days of the intifada the Israelis accused him of orchestrating the crowds

of stone-throwing Palestinian youths who clashed almost every day with Israeli troops.

But Barghouti, who was a major target when the army launched a huge campaign against militants in the West Bank in the spring of 2002, has always insisted that "the people run the intifada, not me."

Educated in political science at Beir Zeit University near Ramallah, and fluent in English and Hebrew, he already spent several of his teenage years in an Israeli jail before being exiled to Tunis during a first intifada in 1988.

Before Barghouti dramatically threw his hat into the ring for the Jan. 9 polls at the 11th hour for candidate registration on Wednesday night, Abbas was the clear front-runner.

The race without Barghouti recalled the one-sided 1996 elections, two years after the start of autonomy under the Oslo accords, when Arafat was the undisputed choice of the people.

While widely regarded as a polished and moderate politician, Abbas, 69, is more admired abroad than at home and lacks the charisma of his younger challenger for the post of Palestinian Authority president.

Abbas' candidacy on behalf of Fatah, the largest party in the PLO, won an overwhelming endorsement of its revolutionary council last week when Barghouti was still saying he would not enter the race.

Briefly Arafat's prime minister before walking out after a bruising power struggle for control of the sprawling Palestinian security apparatus, Abbas nonetheless pledged to follow in the strongman's footsteps.

His formal appointment as PLO leader immediately after Arafat's death has galvanized international efforts to rescue the moribund Middle East peace process, which ground to a halt after he left office in 2003.

A Washington favorite, Abbas held talks with President George W. Bush, who cold-shouldered Arafat, in the White House in July 2003.

But very few Palestinians mourned Abbas's departure from the premier's post, as many believed he had grown too close to both Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=10647

Palestinian voters face moderate versus militant choice

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