NP but worth reading

June 26, 2002

Arafat Calls for Democratic Elections in the United States;World Reaction
is Mixed

by Rahul Mahajan

Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat stunned the world yesterday by
demanding that the United States hold democratic elections for a new Chief
Executive before it attempts to continue in its role as broker between
Israel and Palestine.

"Mr. Bush is tainted by his association with Jim-Crow-style selective
disenfranchisement and executive strong-arm tactics in a southeastern
province controlled by his brother," said Mr. Arafat, who was elected with
87% of the vote in 1996 elections in the West Bank and Gaza, declared to be
free and fair by international observers, including former U.S. president
Jimmy Carter. "Our count shows that he would have lost the election if his
associates hadn't deprived so many thousands of African-Americans, an
oppressed minority, of the right to vote. He is not the man to bring peace
to the Middle East."

Hugo Chavez, elected president of Venezuela with 62% of the popular vote,
concurred with Mr. Arafat. Chavez has long been a victim of Bush's
anti-democratic attitude, as the Bush administration funneled hundreds of
thousands of dollars through the "National Endowment for Democracy" to
anti-Chavez forces and reportedly gave the go-ahead for an attempted
military coup by those forces. "After it was over and I was backin power,"
said Chavez, "his administration actually told me 'legitimacy is not
conferred by a majority vote.' Unless, of course, it's a majority of the
Supreme Court. I respect the local traditions, however quaint, of the
United States, but he hardly sets the best example for the Middle East,
does he? Why don't we get back to that idea of an international conference
to settle the question of Palestine?"

...continues at

http://www.counterpunch.org/