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The Barghouti Cult
(Jerusalem Post) Larry Derfner - Marwan Barghouti is the coolest Palestinian since Arafat first turned up in a keffiyeh and Ray Bans. Former British defense secretary Michael Portillo described him as having "the charisma of Che Guevara" and likened him to Nelson Mandela, and a former Barghouti attorney once argued in court for his client's release by comparing him to Moses. I am a Zionist leftist - someone who thinks that even though the Palestinians, politically, are a nasty piece of work, Israel still doesn't have the right to rule them - and so I have a very different view of Barghouti. I remember seeing a clip of him sitting in the studio of a Palestinian TV station when one of his comrades called in to announce the latest "operation" in Jerusalem. Barghouti became absolutely buoyant over the news, full of praise and gratitude. This was March 2, 2002, and the "operation" was a suicide bombing in the haredi neighborhood of Beit Israel. Ten people were killed. It was Barghouti more than anyone, more than Arafat, who was identified with the outbreak of the intifada. And in those first days, while all Israeli believers in peace went into shock watching the future being wiped out, this fiery, charismatic SOB was triumphant. I know that Nelson Mandela, in his days as an insurgent, lived in a very distant moral universe from the one Barghouti inhabits.