Snake Featherston
Banned
The month is April, 2001. Abu Amar, leader of the PLO, and the one who wishes to be the founder of a state ruling all of Palestine, from the River to the Sea, is alone in his Spartan Office. He has promised an address to Jerusalem now during this Intifada, for what he expects will be a gambit this time so audacious that the Israelis in general and Ariel Sharon in particular will never take him up on it. He believes that if he shows his strength for this particular gamble, offering a cease-fire and the promise of a Palestinian state that will let Israel alone that no Israelis, and Sharon in particular will ever accept it.
He, confident, serene, and isolated, knows that he can bluff the Israelis here, and he has issued orders to Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stand down. All things favor his end, he was driven from Amman, from Beirut, driven to Tripoli and now here he is, ruler of the Palestinian Authority. What could Sharon do here, he is an agent of that treacherous, invariably evil artificial entity dedicated to the destruction of the Palestinians. And this new US President, Bush, is as much a patsy as Clinton will be. After all, words are words.
With the cameras now on and his keffiyeh in perfect shape, Arafat begins his speech:
"I, Abu Amar, leader of the PLO, declare an immediate cease-fire with Israel, with the promise that if our brave heroes fighting for the liberation of their people but lay down their arms that the cause of our people, just and recognized by all nations, will triumph. The savage and vicious war brought upon us by the Zionist Aggressors, who have yet to fulfill the attempts to found a Peace of the Brave begun in Oslo, has begun to wreck the infrastructure of our people.
I say this as someone who champions martyrs, martyrs, martyrs. We must show that we, who desire a full peace, a democratic state of Christian, Muslim, and Jew, are more humane than those imperialists who occupy our land, who settle it, who Judaize it, who tunnel under our holy mosque. I wish for a just and lasting peace with Israel and with all nations, to bind our nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have born the battle, his widow, and his orphan. I wish to be known as Yasser Arafat, restorer of the rights of my people.
To repeat, I declare a full cease-fire in this brutal and unjust conflict, and now extend to my brothers in Israel, to Sharon, to the people who unjustly occupy our lands another statement: I utterly and completely denounce terrorism, and all its works. Our cause is just, and I offer you a complete and total peace, a peace that will be everlasting. As of a quarter-hour after this speech all gunfire will be silent."
Then Arafat gestured and the cameras cut off. Sitting back in his chair the leader of the Palestinian Authority smiled. A short-term cease fire, letting him bring in more guns, more weaponry, perhaps if he was able to hold down Hamas and Islamic Jihad enough even giving him a short-term tactical advantage? He was assured, after all, that of all Israeli leaders this one, Sharon, would answer this in the affirmative when Hell froze over.......
15 minutes later:
The guns and rockets fired from the West Bank and Gaza, and all violence fell silent in a stunned, complete, deafening silence. The leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had received no briefing of this speech, nor had any of the other Palestinian leaders. Abu Mazen, upon hearing it, had spat out his entire drink in surprise and engaged in a long coughing fit. He did not know what Abu Amar was doing, nor did any of the other Palestinian leaders. He did not expect that Abu Amar had *really* learned anything different, but there was always, as the West put it, that Hope that Sprang Eternal......
___________
Comments? This'll be a relatively short TL continued up to 2012.
He, confident, serene, and isolated, knows that he can bluff the Israelis here, and he has issued orders to Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stand down. All things favor his end, he was driven from Amman, from Beirut, driven to Tripoli and now here he is, ruler of the Palestinian Authority. What could Sharon do here, he is an agent of that treacherous, invariably evil artificial entity dedicated to the destruction of the Palestinians. And this new US President, Bush, is as much a patsy as Clinton will be. After all, words are words.
With the cameras now on and his keffiyeh in perfect shape, Arafat begins his speech:
"I, Abu Amar, leader of the PLO, declare an immediate cease-fire with Israel, with the promise that if our brave heroes fighting for the liberation of their people but lay down their arms that the cause of our people, just and recognized by all nations, will triumph. The savage and vicious war brought upon us by the Zionist Aggressors, who have yet to fulfill the attempts to found a Peace of the Brave begun in Oslo, has begun to wreck the infrastructure of our people.
I say this as someone who champions martyrs, martyrs, martyrs. We must show that we, who desire a full peace, a democratic state of Christian, Muslim, and Jew, are more humane than those imperialists who occupy our land, who settle it, who Judaize it, who tunnel under our holy mosque. I wish for a just and lasting peace with Israel and with all nations, to bind our nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have born the battle, his widow, and his orphan. I wish to be known as Yasser Arafat, restorer of the rights of my people.
To repeat, I declare a full cease-fire in this brutal and unjust conflict, and now extend to my brothers in Israel, to Sharon, to the people who unjustly occupy our lands another statement: I utterly and completely denounce terrorism, and all its works. Our cause is just, and I offer you a complete and total peace, a peace that will be everlasting. As of a quarter-hour after this speech all gunfire will be silent."
Then Arafat gestured and the cameras cut off. Sitting back in his chair the leader of the Palestinian Authority smiled. A short-term cease fire, letting him bring in more guns, more weaponry, perhaps if he was able to hold down Hamas and Islamic Jihad enough even giving him a short-term tactical advantage? He was assured, after all, that of all Israeli leaders this one, Sharon, would answer this in the affirmative when Hell froze over.......
15 minutes later:
The guns and rockets fired from the West Bank and Gaza, and all violence fell silent in a stunned, complete, deafening silence. The leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad had received no briefing of this speech, nor had any of the other Palestinian leaders. Abu Mazen, upon hearing it, had spat out his entire drink in surprise and engaged in a long coughing fit. He did not know what Abu Amar was doing, nor did any of the other Palestinian leaders. He did not expect that Abu Amar had *really* learned anything different, but there was always, as the West put it, that Hope that Sprang Eternal......
___________
Comments? This'll be a relatively short TL continued up to 2012.