NEWS: Arafat to Step Down After Statehood, page 1

posted on Oct, 5 2004 @ 04:38 PM

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The Palestinian President, Yassir Arafat has said that he will step down after serving as President of an independent Palestinian state. Arafat, while comparing himself to Nelson Mandella, has said that he would be willing to leave it to others after a state is established.

www.haaretz.com
CAIRO - Comparing himself to South Africa's Nelson Mandela, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said in an interview published Tuesday that he will step down from office after he has ruled an independent Palestinian state.

He compared himself to Mandela, 86, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and stepped down five years later to assume the role of an elder statesman. Mandela shared a Peace Nobel Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 1993, a year before Arafat shared the same prize with late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

"I am ready to be Nelson Mandela," Arafat said in an apparent reference to Mandela's withdrawal from political office. "I agree, but (only) after the Palestinian state is established and I am its president. Then I leave it to others."

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Yassir Arafat's willing departure from ruling the Palestinian Authority is something that would have to be seen to be believed. He is known to tightly control all components of the PA, and has only reluctently given over any portion of it's control.
Arafat has in the recent past promised elections, but as of yet no date for them has been set.

[edit on 5-10-2004 by John bull 1]

TexasConspiracyNut

posted on Oct, 5 2004 @ 11:05 PM

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An independent Palestinian state will not happen so his statement is meaningless IMO. The Israeli government will never allow the birth of another muslim state in their air space as long as Israel exist. They hate each other and to think that Israel would allow this to happen with their 300 nukes is like thinking there is a tooth fairy.

phreak_of_nature

posted on Oct, 5 2004 @ 11:23 PM

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I think that maybe Israel could be pressured into allowing for the creation of a Palestinian state, just not with Arafat as the head of that state.

Arafat has been the major obstacle to peace and stability for the people he claims to love so much.