This NYC-based Palestinian businessman has some harsh words for Chairman Arafat. Karsou is the founder of a group called "Democracy in Palestine" and has the ear of Bush, Cheney, and Sharansky.

. . . Over the weekend of June 22-23, [Bush's speech saying Arafat must go] was entirely rewritten. Vice President Dick Cheney played an important role in that rewrite, as did two improbable people, Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident now right-wing Israeli politician, and Omar Karsou, former Palestinian refugee in Ramallah, now banker and "civil society" democracy activist, living in exile under death threat in New York. For some obscure reason, the effect of the last big blast in Jerusalem was to finally open ears at the top of the Bush administration to what these two "enemies of the Oslo accords" -- one Israeli, one Palestinian -- had been arguing for many years.

Mr Karsou, 42, a banker from Nablus who was living in Ramallah until a year ago, told Mr Cheney that many Palestinians wanted Mr Arafat to go. . . . "If we can get rid of the so-called leadership then we can definitely progress with a new generation. The people are ready, willing and able to make peace with our neighbours, whether it be Israel or Jordan."

Mr Karsou was delighted by Mr Bush's speech [naming the "axis of evil" and saying Arafat has to go]. "It reflects our views exactly," he said.

Although Karsou also has harsh words for Israel (and his fellow Palestinians wouldn't take him seriously if he didn't), he is a businessman - heck, he's a banker. Business people (especially in such a conservative industry) have a stake in stable law-abiding societies so they can make a living.

. . . . One thing [Israel] had and has, however, is a rule of law. Any property that could be amassed despite the burden of government could be considered relatively safe from arbitrary expropriation, while business disputes could be settled swiftly in uncorrupt courts. It is surely the rule of law that explains Israel's astonishing relative prosperity in a benighted region. . . . Israel's seizure of Gaza and the West Bank from Egypt and Jordan in 1967 did not bring dignity or political freedom, but it at least brought some respite from arbitrary government, and with it rising Palestinian standards of living. But since Arafat & Company returned in 1994 to monopolize the economy, fortunes have reversed dramatically. Based on World Bank and International Monetary Fund data, Professor Ephraim Kleiman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem estimates that Palestinian GNP was about one-third lower in 2001 than in 1993.

Business people are realists rather than ideologues. They are self-disciplined and self-reliant. They often deal with people from many cultures, so they can't afford to be xenophobic zealots. They know wealth doesn't just appear out of thin air (or EU or UN handouts). They think about the future.

According to Sharansky, "Karsou represents an authentic position of the Palestinian middle class, who are familiar with the democratic experience from our side. The Palestinians have found themselves trapped in a corrupt dictatorship that strangles not only business initiative, but freedom of expression as well. . . . They said that there was no hope for democracy in Japan and Germany, because of their culture and their worldview. And lo and behold, today they are stable democracies . . . . The Americans also understand now that there is an intimate connection between international security and the democratization of regimes . . . "

[all boldface emphasis mine - JW]

Posted by Judith Weiss at May 3, 2003 01:07 AM | TrackBack