...the fact remains, that this was not the same Ashwari who last appeared in New Haven in 2003 at SCSU, when she made such "bully pulpit" comments like "sucide bombers are the equivalent of a poor man's F-16" and when asked abot "honor killings" hurrumphed and said "thats a typical Israeli question."

None of that this time. In fact we noted that not a few of her erstwhile supporters walked out mid speech because, as you will see in [someone else's] observations below-no sturm and drang was present.

In fact Ashwari admitted that her correligionists, Chrisitians in the PA have fled-reducing their proportion from 20 to 2% and she wouldn't like to see the Chrisitian presence turn"churches into Museums." The reality is as she inferred in her remarks was that Islamization in the PA was taking it's toll on the Chrsitian presence. She was also candid about internal threats like fractionalism, terrorists being politicized and seeking control of the Palestinian legislative council and the weakness of the Abbas leadership in wrassling the 14 security services into a unifed one. Given the comment in the Jersualem Post below by a Muslim Arab, Ashwari had every reason to be subdued and not triumphant. Because even she had to admit that Sharon had trumped her and her fellow Palestinian peaceniks with the April 14, 2004 letter from Bush about certain realities on the ground. She also admitted as much that the US wants to see evidence of security, de-militiarization of the terror groups in the PA and eradication of the corruption by the kleptos-including Abbas, I would imagine, but maybe not.

Ashwari deflated the left radical secularists in the Levinson auditorium by not supporting a bi-national state solution: two states is okay as long as the 1967 "Auschwitz" borders are adhered to, the settement outposts are rolled back and Res. 191- dealing with rights of Palestinian refugee return are adhered to. But even she held out the fig leaf of a choice between return and "compensation," after Israel recognizes its role in "al Naqbah." Never happen...

Hanan Ashwari's tone has changed a lot since the days that she'd been loud and shrill on TV. Today she sounds defeated and resolved to the reality that Sharon will get his way

In short,, the noteworthy key statements which showed a remarkable change from her old self, was the fact that she said "Israel is not like South Africa" She did not mention "Apartheid state once! " She said occupation a whole bunch of times though. She called for Palestinians to stop all terrorism and did not call Israel's actions terrorism. She did refer to Israel as the "oppressor" a number of times and described this "oppression" vis~a~vis, the check points which turned the land into a prison for the Palestinian. She called for democracy and the rule of law in Palestine. she called for a two state solution. (although on the 67 borders) She engaged in considerable critique of the Palestinian people and their in fighting. And also made a lot of her old ridiculous statements including one new one, i.e., The Occupation (Israel) are the ones driving out Christians from Bethlehem and other such places. (some laughed at her when she said this). Apparently the days of pulling the wool over the American public's eyes are over and she didn't quite get that. It was sort of like watching an old war horse that didn't quite realize that folks were hip to her old tricks. Other laughable statements she made were: America had nothing to do with the democratization process in Iraq or the Lebanese Cedar revolution, and that the Arabs were all poised to do this all along, but only now the Americans are coming to take credit for it.

She wants a return of the refugees OR financial compensation for them and an acknowledgment of responsibility by Israel. The words "or financial compensation" she blurted out fast so that it was almost inaudible. All in all, she sounds like a defeated woman, and a lot of her arguments for her side were pathetic and she seemed to loose her focus and clarity during those times; this was no tiger...

...I sensed a definite Weakness on her side of the argument. The outrageous statements did not ring out as true. And several Muslims walked out. She definitively said that the Palestinians have to be content with a Bi state solution and not try to defeat Israel... because it won't happen,, and the feeling was to actually recognize the State of Israel and her right to exist. Although she called for the return of the refugees and got really wordy and ineffective about that,, and she did not seem like she would be victorious at this prospect,, and just really lamented, "Oh what a civil rights violation that would be if these refugees were not allowed to return home" She also seems slippery, sly and not believable that the return of the refugees had nothing to do with a plan to destroy Israel through demographics,, and then she tried to make this argument fly by making a Joke that a baby making war is not a war at all~ and shared some outrage that she had about a statement being made by an Israeli basically saying that the war could be fought in an Arab woman's womb. She deflected away from the real demographic issue by picking up upon this Male Chauvinistic statement. She made a joke,, that the US has been in the middle east so long that she was wondering if the US thought it was a member of the Arab League. She got laughs for that remark, including from me. She complained that America and Israel are giving the Palestinian's grades on their performance of their duties, i.e., the dismantling of Hamas and the like for starters. And the feeling in the room as far as I could tell was not sympathetic. She was saying these things and yet every person in the room including the Muslims knew all too well the prolific acts of Terror that came from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, etc,, that it was like,, "Well Yah,,, the Israelis are going to make sure that this stops before they proceed, Duh!!"

My biggest critique of Hanan Ashwari however is the fact that she has no backbone, no moral compass, and she seems like a lost erudite soul expressing contradictory statements and not being at all perturbed about falsehoods that she seems to know are false at the time she says them. Why do I say that, because when she lies she speeds up and blurts out the lie, almost as the only way she can unload it on us is if she blurts it out fast before we get a chance to reject it. It sounds like she is trying to put one over on us. She is a most diabolical and sad figure. She is shipwrecked and so are the people she represents.