Is Bishara the 'Palestinian Herzl'?

[ Middle East News Service comments: For quite a few days I have been waiting on some useful information in regard to the case of Knesset Member Azmi Bishara. While the situation is far from clear there will probably be enough to compile something to make sense of the puzzle later today. (An Israeli gag on the subject meant that Haaretz could not even report on what Bishara said on Al Jazeera television.)

In the meantime this analysis by veteran reporter Danny Rubinstein is worth reading. The main reason is Rubinstein’s analysis of the current situation in the region as reflected by this saga:

"The map is simple enough to decipher: If Israel and the Palestinian Authority fail to reach an agreement based on a two-state solution, the only alternative would be a single-state solution. There is no other prospect. " (Emphasis added)

"Rubinstein continues: This single state would not be a "secular democratic nation," as the PLO advocated in the past, nor would it be a state of all its citizens, which is the cause Bishara has set out to realize. The strong Jewish majority would not allow that. The only option remaining would be an apartheid state, whose first signs - and possibly more than just that - are already visible in the West Bank and in Gaza. " (Emphasis added)

Scary thoughts indeed – Sol Salbe.]

FROM: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/848751.html

Last update - 02:29 16/04/2007

Is Bishara the 'Palestinian Herzl'?

By Danny Rubinstein

The recent affair concerning the criminal investigation of MK Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Arab Balad party chairman who has left the country, has spawned a multitude of journalistic reports and commentaries. Palestinian political commentator Hassan al-Batal went as far as to write that the lawmaker "could have become the Palestinian Herzl," referring to the founder of Zionism.

The Arab media as a whole have applauded him. A journalist from the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat interviewed a young woman from southern Lebanon, who predicted that Bishara would one day become president of the Palestinian state. He reminded her that Bishara was a member of the Israeli Knesset, and that he belonged to the Palestinian Christian minority. She was unfazed, insisting that he was the best choice precisely because of his intimate knowledge of "Zionist fascism."

… snip…

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/848751.html

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