Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti told The Associated Press he was never serious about his presidential bid and that he doubts the current front-runner, Mahmoud Abbas, will be able to end violence.Barghouti's on-again, off-again candidacy had thrown Palestinian politics into turmoil, with polls indicating he would have posed a serious challenge to Abbas in a Jan. 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president.
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Barghouti withdrew from the race after coming under stiff criticism from Fatah activists for splitting the party. At the time, polls showed that Barghouti, running as an independent, was virtually tied with Abbas.
But Barghouti told AP he never intended to follow through.
"My nomination for the election was just a tactic to send a political message," Barghouti said. "From the outset, I did not intent to continue the race until the end."
"Just a tactic." Right. A perfect summation of just about every word we've been hearing out of the mouths of everyone associated with the palestinian "leadership." Something to keep in mind as we head into the new year.
May it be a better one than the last one, free of earthquakes and tsunamis, free of beheadings and suicide bombings, free of baseless hatred and false accusations, a year of peace and prosperity, a year of health and happiness for us all.
Happy New Year.
Shabbat Shalom.
