Hisham Aldiwan
Special to The Daily Star

LONDON: The best service Palestinian President Yasser Arafat can render his people and their cause right now is to resign, says George Habash, the elder statesman of the Palestinian leftist opposition.
In a telephone interview with The Daily Star from his Damascus office, the co-founder and former leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) urged Arafat to step down in favor of a broad-based collective leadership that adheres to Palestinian national “constants” and makes its decisions democratically.
Habash said Israel and the United States would exploit Arafat’s desire to hold onto power as a way of forcing him to do their bidding, and suggested that the Americans might still prefer that he remain in office for that reason, even though the Israelis may publicly demand his head.
“I advise him to resign from the (Palestinian) Authority, and for the leadership to be assumed by national figures who are more competent,” Habash said. “I advise him to step down in the Palestinian way, not in line with … demands made by the American and Israeli administrations as a way of blackmailing him into offering additional concessions.”
Habash said Arafat should “step down from the pinnacle of power now and continue his march within the ranks of his people, because the Palestinian cause is bigger than any individual or leader.”
Habash then recalled how he resigned as secretary-general of the PFLP some years ago “to set an example to others” and demonstrate that  “a leader doesn’t have to retain his post forever, and can serve the cause … from a different position.”
Habash’s successor, Abu Ali Mustafa, was killed in August when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into his Ramallah office. The PFLP retaliated by assassinating Israel’s hard-line Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, prompting Israel to demand that the PA crack down on the group. Its current secretary-general, Ahmad Saadat, is held in a PA jail in Jericho ­ as part of the deal that secured an end to Israel’s siege of Arafat’s headquarters. The Israeli Army arrested his deputy, Abdel-Rahim Mallouh, in Nablus earlier this week.
Habash said a “distinction must be drawn” between the Palestinian leadership changes and institutional reforms that Israel and the US have started demanding to serve their ends, and the similar calls that the Palestinians have long been making with the goal of strengthening the liberation struggle.
“We must look at this issue with Palestinian eyes,” he said. “Our people are demanding change more than at any time before; they demand accountability, an end to corruption and a wholesale critical reappraisal of the situation in line with the national consensus.”
He added that an expanded collective leadership needs to be set up, which rehabilitates the institutions of the PLO and enables them to function democratically, “especially in making fateful decisions.”
“The time has come for the young national leaders … to arise,” and for the PA to stop “marginalizing” the PLO and supplanting its role as the Palestinians’ collective leadership body, Habash said.
But he also said he doubted Arafat would relinquish power of his own accord.
“Although I advise Arafat to seriously consider resigning and stepping down, I don’t believe he will accept this … for a variety of reasons,” Habasyh said. “He wants to be the first president of the state of Palestine ­ any state, irrespective of its nature, even if it is a token nominal state without any of the features of a state other than the flag, the guard of honor and the red carpet.
“Perhaps … Arafat’s role has not ended as far as the US administration is concerned,” he said. “It is banking on him and the PA offering concessions,” especially as “America and Israel have not managed to find a Palestinian Hamid Karzai.”

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