I read the latest so-called poem by Mahmud Darwish. I will not link to it and will not translate. Some of you know how much I admire the poetry of Darwish: nobody writes Arabic like him in the contemporary Arab world. I even like to hear him talk in interviews: he prose is most precise. But politically, I have never admired Darwish, or his political choices. He reminds me of those who have latched on the lousy political leadership of `Arafat (a Palestinian leader worse than Ahmad Shuqayri AND Hajj Amin Husayni combined), while trying to claim that they are independent. It has to be said that `Arafat was a major factor in trying to kill the Palestinian resistance movement in order to 1) win US approval; 2) to maintain the flow of Arab oil money. Fath was a movement with some great leaders and some potential: Israel killed them all (except Abu Mazen, of course), and `Arafat ruled without them while using corruption to ensure loyalty and obedience and autocracy. He is responsible for the rise of Dahlan and his ilk, just as Michel `Aflaq was responsible for promoting Saddam Husayn. And Darwish is not somebody who can cast political judgment on anybody: he who once called Saddam Husayn "faris Al-`urubah" (the knight of Arabism), and he who wrote that poem "In praise of the Higher Shadow" about his idol, Yasir `Arafat. Darwish also has some Clintonian qualities: he is for the thing, and for its opposite. Does anybody really know where Mahmud Darwish stood on Oslo*: well, he is for it and against, just like Bill Clinton's position on the 1991 US war on Iraq. And let us not Orientalize the Palestinian people: I hate those who have been waiting for an event in order to wash their hands off the Palestinian cause. I hate those who observe with outrage: that there is a Palestinian civil war. Now, of course, these are ugly scenes, and things are bad: and of course, one does not relish the developments in Palestine: but is this unique to this liberation movement? Do you remember the conflict in the body of the Algerian national movement? And most importantly: who is responsible for the bloodshed in Palestine? Who brought this on? Who instigated (and funded and encouraged) a Palestinian civil war, or what is being labeled as a Palestinian civil war? Now we know for sure: the constituency of Salam Fayyad, Muhammad Dahlan, and Abu Mazen is not in Palestine but in Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Washington, DC.
* To be fair, the position of Mahmud Darwish on Oslo became more clear when Arafat bought him an old house in Ramallah, and increased his generosity to him.