"JimH" wrote in message
...

"John H" wrote in message
...
The Palestinians are catching on. The Syrians seem to be hearing the
message.
Putin got the message. The Word is spreading...


washingtonpost.com
Palestinians Signal Break With Arafat Era
Lawmakers Approve Cabinet Heavy on Young Technocrats and Reformers

By Samuel Sockol and John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 25, 2005; Page A15

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb. 24 -- The Palestinian parliament on Thursday
approved
a new cabinet composed largely of reformers and technocrats after forcing
Prime
Minister Ahmed Qureia to dump an entrenched group of Yasser Arafat
loyalists.

With a few exceptions, the 24-member cabinet is made up of men with
little
experience in elective office, unlike the old cabinet and alternative
lists for
the new one informally floated this week by Qureia, which were drawn
mostly from
members of parliament and stalwarts of Arafat's Fatah movement, the
dominant
organization in the Palestinian Authority.

Qureia, a member of Fatah who was appointed prime minister by Arafat 15
months
ago, was forced to accept the wholesale shake-up by a newly independent
and
assertive Palestinian Legislative Council. Lawmakers, after years of
subservience in which they simply rubber-stamped cabinets stacked with
Arafat
cronies, exercised their oversight powers for the first time and forced
real
change on the Palestinian Authority's executive branch.

Even members of Fatah, which controls about two-thirds of the
legislature's
seats, turned against Qureia and his proposals for a limited cabinet
shuffle.
Seemingly liberated by the death of Arafat three months ago, and with an
eye
toward parliamentary elections in July, lawmakers across the board
demanded a
major housecleaning.

"It was important to raise a voice clearly against anyone who does not
want to
change and develop," said Mufid Abed Rabbo, a member of parliament from
Fatah's
wing of young reformers. "It was necessary to say no to the old path, and
therefore it was agreed upon to have a cabinet of technocrats."

In forcing the overhaul, lawmakers said they were reacting to public
demands to
purge corrupt cabinet ministers, professionalize the government and
expedite
reforms, especially the training of security forces and the consolidating
of 12
security agencies. Lawmakers said the new cabinet underscored their
dedication
to reform in advance of a 25-nation conference in London next week that
will
focus on strengthening Palestinian political institutions.

The power struggle over the cabinet played out over the past three days
as
Qureia, who as prime minister has strongly defended the political status
quo and
initiated few changes, informally floated several lists but never
proposed a new
cabinet to parliament because it was clear he did not have the votes.
Threatened
with a no-confidence vote that could have cost him his job, Qureia
finally
relented and stripped the cabinet of most holdovers from the Arafat era.

The new cabinet, approved 54 to 10 with four abstentions, includes seven
ministers from the old cabinet and 17 newcomers. Eleven of the ministers
have
doctorates, and three are engineers.

Maj. Gen. Nasser Yusef was named interior minister, while Mohammed
Dahlan,
formerly a senior security official in Gaza, was made civil affairs
minister.
Both are strong advocates of reform and were often at odds with Arafat.
Salam
Fayyad, a respected former official with the International Monetary Fund,
retained his position as finance minister.

Arafat's nephew, Nasser Kidwa, the Palestinian ambassador to the United
Nations,
was named foreign minister, replacing Nabil Shaath, who was made deputy
prime
minister and information minister. Negotiations minister Saeb Erekat, one
of the
best-known Palestinian spokesmen for more than a decade, lost his cabinet
post
but remains the Palestinians' chief negotiator with Israel.

"This is a transitional government," Shaath said after the vote. "The
public
wanted to test some younger people, but these younger people will have
some of
the older people with them" to provide continuity, he said. "But the
majority
are new, so rejuvenation is the name of the game."

Anderson reported from Jerusalem.



John H

On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD,
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary
to resolve it."
Rene Descartes

Indeed. Good things are happening across the globe, most especially in
the Middle East. And we can thank GWB for it.

This could have happened way back in 1991...but Bush 41 was afraid to back
the Shiite and Kurd uprising in Iraq, despite publicly encouraging them to
do so.

Bush 43 has certainly sent a strong message that he means what he
says...and the silent majority in the Arab world believes him as is starting
to get bolder and bolder.

"As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."