Arafat successor al-Qaida sympathizer

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The new leader of the ruling Fatah movement is an al-Qaida sympathizer with close ties to such terrorist sponsors as Iran and Syria.

Farouq Qaddumi is largely unknown to the 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He hasn't stepped foot in these areas for nearly 40 years. But Qaddumi represents powerful Middle East countries, including Iran and Syria, which regard him as a means to expand their foothold in the Palestinian Authority.

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For the last 30 years Qaddumi has headed the Palestinian Liberation Organization Foreign Affairs Department. He has made it clear that he sees terrorism as a strategic option for Palestinians. Born in the West Bank of Jenin and a founding member of Fatah in 1957, Qaddumi, like his late boss, Yasser Arafat, has made a career of currying favor with Mideast despots.

"Resistance is the path to reach political settlement because we do not claim we are capable of defeating the Israeli army," Qaddumi told Hezbollah television last week.

"This policy was determined by the PLO when our brother the martyr, our brother the president, Abu Amar [Arafat], stood at the United Nations in 1974 and said: 'I hold a gun in one hand and an olive branch in the other.'"

Already, Qaddumi has also called for a wave of attacks against Israel.

He has sought to align himself with Iran and Syria as an alternative to the leadership of new PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.

Qaddumi's words have fallen on eager ears. Under Qaddumi's leadership, the Fatah movement has launched an effort to spearhead the Palestinian war against Israel.

Palestinian sources said Fatah commanders have ordered their cadres to step up attacks against Israel following Arafat's death. Fatah has acquired rockets, mortars and other weaponry to attack Israeli military and civilian targets in the Gaza Strip.

Qaddumi, a graduate of the American University in Cairo, was working in Kuwait as a petroleum engineer when he met Arafat in mid-1950s. He became chief of foreign affairs of the PLO Executive Council in 1973 and was later termed Palestinian foreign minister.

In the mid-1970s, Qaddumi developed contacts with the United States. Palestinian sources said the contacts led to the recognition by President Jimmy Carter of the Palestinian right to self-determination. At the same time, Qaddumi built a network of PLO legations throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.

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Along with Abbas and Palestine National Council speaker Salim Zaanoun, Qaddumi has been the only surviving member of Fatah's original Central Council. His election as Fatah chief was regarded as somewhat of a surprise considering his absence from Arafat over the last decade.

Qaddumi, whose leadership bid has been supported by Suha Arafat, was one of the few PLO officials permitted to visit her husband in Paris. Sources said PLO officials based outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip support Qaddumi's challenge. They said these officials have been concerned of major cutbacks in the PLO following Arafat's death.

Another base for Qaddumi is among the 300,000 Palestinians who came with Arafat to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994. They are concerned that they would suffer under a post-Arafat leadership that caters to the majority of the Palestinians born and raised in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but discriminated against in jobs and government services. Many of the Palestinian outsiders are members of the PA security forces.

For Qaddumi, terrorism has its place and time. Although he opposed the 1993 Oslo agreements, Qaddumi expressed understanding for the temporary Palestinian ceasefire with Israel in the 1990s. As he saw it, the Palestinians stopped fighting when they were obtaining concessions. When the concessions ended, the fighting resumed.

"It is a war based on the element of surprise, in time and place," Qaddumi told Al Hayat in an interview in December 2001. "In this war, one incites the public for 20 hours, and fights for perhaps two hours."

"Guerilla war is like commerce," Qaddumi said. "As Mao Zedong said, we trade when trade is profitable and stop when it's not. The Palestinian resistance is continuing. But we must assure, first, the success of the resistance. Second, [we must] prevent damage to Palestinian security."

Over the past year, Qaddumi has helped make Jordan a terrorist base for Fatah operatives. Israeli security sources said that after a lull of several years Fatah agents have resumed using Jordan for operations planning, recruitment and the transfer of money from Iran to Arafat loyalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The sources said the Fatah operation, which began in 2002, has been raised by Israel in discussions with the Hashemite kingdom.

Fuad Balbisi has led the Fatah network in Jordan, security sources said. Balbisi worked for Qaddumi and has been financing Fatah insurgency cells with money from Iran and Hizbullah. Balbisi was directing the recruitment and operations of Fatah squads in the territories in attacks against Israeli targets.

Oil as weapon

Qaddumi also has advocated using the Islamic oil weapon against the United States. He said the oil weapon could be a more powerful weapon against the West than terrorism or war.

"We thank God that the oil begins to take a new position from which it will be possible to use in that war," Qaddumi said. "World demand for oil is increasing. Therefore it becomes possible to use oil to exert pressure."

Qaddumi sees Israel as on the verge of collapse and regards the election of Ariel Sharon as the last choice of the Jewish state, or as he put it, "the last bullet in the Israeli rifle." When that bullet is spent, he said, Israel would disintegrate a la the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia.

Not surprising, Qaddumi has positive words for al-Qaida and its 9/11 suicide strikes on New York and Washington. After saying he condemned the attacks, Qaddumi discussed the benefits of the attacks.

"These events will serve as a lesson to the United States," Qaddumi said.

"This was the first time that Arabic names were introduced to American households," he added.

"These incidents caused America to reexamine its foreign policy to find the causes of terrorism."

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