Thursday, April 08, 2010

Palestinian sex scandal

There is a sex scandal in the PA, showing that the Palestinians are not perfect, as many leftists seem to think they are. The leftist doctrine that Palestinians "can do no wrong" and that it's all the fault of the Israelis is severely tested by this scandal.

Two months ago the Jerusalem Post published an interview with Fahmi Shabaneh, a former PA intelligence chief, who claimed that Rafik Husseini, Head of Pres. Abbas' bureau, had had illicit sex with a Palestinian woman, and that the woman had complained that she was being exploited by him. As head of the Intelligence Bureau's anti-corruption unit, Shabaneh was in a position to know about this corruption. Also, he gave Channel 10 a video showing Husseini naked in bed with the woman and saying that Pres Abbas is "weak" and has no charisma and that Arafat had been "one of the biggest swindlers." The initial reaction of the PA to this scandal, dubbed "Fatahgate," was to deny it, to order all material related to it to be destroyed and to label Shabaneh as an "Israeli collaborator."

However, now an official Commission of Enquiry in the PA has found that Shabaneh was telling the truth, and Abbas has now fired Husseini and also his boss Tawfik Tarawi, who currently heads the PA's Military Academy. In his comments Shabaneh, who resigned from his position, gave examples of other "corruption" including misuse of large sums of PA funding. Although this has been known for some time, Shabaneh gave specific examples. Shabaneh was also summoned to give testimony before the Commission in Ramallah but declined to go, fearing for his life. He lives in an Israeli suburb of Jerusalem.

Although the economic situation in the West Bank (PA) has improved over the past few years, this scandal once again shows that Fatah is run by entrenched corrupt bureaucrats. If there is ever another election (Abbas is currently illegally holding office) it is likely that Fatah will be replaced by Hamas, as they were in Gaza, and this could be even worse for Israel. Hamas may not be as corrupt as Fatah, but they are far more dangerous.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home