Where are these three smiling Fatah figures today?
There are three smiling men in this picture. The middle one is older, with a graying beard, high forehead and a pipe. He looks like a Cuban revolutionary. He is flanked on either side by younger men who look like hot students from the cafeteria. One has a mustache; the other wears glasses. The one with the glasses is Mohammed Dahlan, a bit of a dandy, who rests his elbow affectionately on the shoulder of the older man, Abu Ali Shahin. The smile of the mustachioed one, Marwan Barghouti, looks more like his infectious laugh, behind which is a self-deprecating sense of humor. (At our first meeting in 1997, he explained to me, at my request, how the Oslo Accords would lead to independence. At the end of his explanation, I said I didn't understand, and he said, "I don't, either.")
