Driven by Curiosity…

Finally in Amman, The weather is absolutely gorgeous…

In the few hours I have been here, it seems to me the only thing people are talking about is Arafat. No wonder, it IS a very important issue. Since I came across an article called Palestine: facing the unthinkable in Arab News on November 5, issue. And in the spirit of what everyone is talking about, I actually would like to share the contents of the article. I thought it is very interesting.

Basically it starts by telling us about Leila Shahid’s (Palestinian envoy to Paris) tearful declaration of not being able to imagine life without Arafat, and takes us into a short tour about how we would have been way better if we imagined life without him ten years ago!

The setup is Madrid Conference 1992. The writer Amir taheri tells us how the Palestinian delegation was presented for the first time by a modern, moderate delegation (Haidar Abdul shafi, and Faisal al Husseini) that could not be labeled as extremist or terrorist. This delegation was presenting the normal average and most of the Palestinian people. They did not want people to die for “the cause” so that they are remembered in some poems recited by Palestinian all over the word in their intellectual gatherings. He explains to us how for us Palestine became only an abstract cause, not a concrete problem that affects the lives of real people.

The Israeli delegation became uncomfortable dealing with this genuine Palestinian delegation that represents the real people and not the “cause” so they opened a back channel with Arafat, who was isolated in Tunis because he had sided with Saddam Hussein in invading Kuwait. Arafat was feeling that he needed money and attention, and since Israel offered him both, in exchange of taking part in the charade, he was ready to sign anything to get back into the world. The rest is history.

Anyone wants to talk about anything else? How is the weather again?