Word: arafats
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...Gaza. They subsist on $7 a day scrounged from relatives. Desperate though it sounds, the family's predicament is hardly rare in Gaza's slums--and it is why Sharaf plans to vote for Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the leading candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat as President of the Palestinian Authority. "Abbas wants to get workers back to their jobs," says Sharaf. "I don't care about politics with Israel. I need to make a living, because all I'm doing now, by God, is swatting flies...
...Palestinians like Sharaf, the election on Jan. 9 may represent the best chance in years to chart a new direction, away from Arafat's legacy of conflict and misrule and toward a more prosperous, peaceful future. Abbas, 69, popularly known as Abu Mazen, has pledged to curb violence and exact agreements from Israel to ease conditions in the occupied territories. That position has earned him the backing of the U.S. and the support of a majority of likely voters, for whom the election is as much about putting food on the table as it is about ideology. Polls show Abbas...
...getting elected may be the easy part. As President, Abbas will have to begin dismantling the pillars of Arafat's regime if he hopes to persuade Israel to return to the negotiating table. His first task is to disarm the gunmen of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Arafat-backed group that has ruled over Palestinian towns like gangsters. Senior Martyrs Brigades officials tell TIME that Abbas has offered to buy back their weapons to avoid a confrontation. But the militants have shown little sign of moderation. "We were the warlords under Arafat," says a Brigades leader in Ramallah...
Establishing his legitimacy will require Abbas to reverse the culture of waste and corruption that ruined the Palestinian economy under Arafat. According to the World Bank, the average Palestinian's income is 36% lower than it was before the intifadeh began. Almost 50% live in poverty, which means a daily income of less than $2 a person...
...Cain?s Field concentrates each chapter on one or two individuals with whom I've had personal contact, from an Arafat henchman to a bereaved Israeli settler and one of Tel Aviv's most popular rock stars. Their stories tell truths about the chaos at the hearts of these peoples. But my book also offers hope - that by turning the spotlight inward, these societies might heal their internal wounds, and move towards a peaceful future...