Word: gaza
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That may sound like a strange observation at a time when Arafat looks poised to win an expansion of his authority. For the past year the Palestinians have enjoyed limited self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Jericho. Now negotiators are scrambling to meet this week's deadline for an accord that would detail a timetable for Palestinian elections as well as a redeployment of the Israeli army in the West Bank. The original deadline for the new agreement was July 1, but that slipped to July 25 and may slip again. The killing last...
Symbolically and economically, the West Bank is much more important to the Palestinians -- and the Israelis -- than is the Gaza Strip. Given the approach of this new phase of Palestinian self-determination, and given the wobbly but undeniable progress toward a secure peace that the Palestinians and Israelis have made since they signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, it might be expected that Arafat would display some joy and satisfaction these days. But he appears more fatigued than exhilarated, more fatalistic than hopeful. And the same can be said for his people...
...understand why that is so, and to get a sense of what the near future holds for the West Bank, one need only look at the experience of Palestinian self-rule so far. When Arafat entered the Gaza Strip, he and his aides raised expectations to an absurd height. The initial euphoria was sure to ebb, but Gazans could reasonably have hoped for competence and fairness, pride in their new government and a sense of momentum toward statehood. Instead they have seen organizational anarchy, corruption and autocracy. Meanwhile, the realization is sinking in that the Israelis will exercise some control...
...govern the Gaza Strip and Jericho, Arafat established the Palestinian Authority, patched together from previously exiled bureaucrats in the P.L.O. and from the organization's ranks of underground activists in the occupied territories. Israel has been stingy about relinquishing real power to Arafat-strictly controlling who and what go in and out of the self-rule zones-but on its own terms, the Authority, with its 18 ministers, 22,000 civil servants and 18,500 security personnel, has performed far less well than had been hoped, as Authority officials themselves acknowledge. "How can we convince people...
...result of Arafat's administration, government services in many cases have deteriorated in the past year. A letter mailed within the tiny Gaza Strip now takes a week to arrive instead of two days. The phone system is a mess, because the Palestinian Authority has added twice as many lines as it was designed for. Building construction is so unregulated that Arafat's own Planning Ministry warns of a "forthcoming disaster''; the Authority manages to collect even less in taxes than the Israelis did, and the security forces especially have developed a reputation for petty corruption. A common complaint...