Democracy

After a Fatah delegation went to see Marwan Barghouti, with Israel's
permission, he reversed his decision and has now decided not to run as an
opposition candidate to Mahmoud Abbas in the PA Presidential election. This
is good news, since it relieves Israel of having to worry about the impact
of his potential popularity, and because it leaves the way clear for Abbas,
the official Fatah candidate.
What did they say to Marwan to convince him? Maybe one of the things they
said is that if he doesn't run, then when Abbas is elected he will arrange a
deal with Israel to release him. I doubt if Israel would go for this since
he has "blood on his hands" but you never know. The fact that he stepped
down makes the possibility of a "young guard" challenge to Abbas and his
supporters that much less likely, which is good for the prospect of future
stability.
In a related development, Minister Natan Sharansky has been appearing on
local news channels following his hour meeting with Pres. Bush in
Washington, where he discussed his new book on Democracy. Apparently both
Bush and Condoleeza Rice were reading it, and since Bush's original policy
was essentially based on Sharansky's view, that only truly democratic reform
in the PA can result in a peace between Israel and the Palestinians, then
one can assume that his views are still influential
Sharansky made several good points, first that the mere exercise of an
election does not make a society democratic, since the USSR had plenty of
(one party) elections. The important point is that the election must take
place in a society where the freedom to express opinions and to vote is
truly open. In the PA, where law and order has broken down and groups of
thugs control most of the cities, this is not currently the situation.
He also pointed out that while the West was essentially unified in its
approach to the Communist bloc, the Europeans tend to take a hands off or
even pro-Palestinian attitude, even though the Palestinians are
anti-democratic and use terrorist violence (it has not stopped yet).
He also said that Israel should not make any concessions to the PA until it
becomes democratic and serious in its approach. This is where I disagree
with him, since he is against Sharon's Disengagement Plan, seeing it as an
unnecessary one-sided concession to the PA, while I see it as an attempt to
get things off dead center while taking the initiative out of the hands of
the Palestinians. As it happens, the unilateral disengagement from Gaza
comes with good timing for changes towards democracy in the PA, so that once
Abbas is confirmed as President in January, there will be a chance for the
disengagement to be coordinated with the PA, and the new Government can then
establish its authority as Israel withdraws. This is the optimistic view,
that Secty. Powell expressed while here this week. Let's hope it comes to
pass.