01 April 2013 - orsam

“It’s a good cop, bad cop routine. The bad
cops are the security services, and the
good cop is the benevolent president,”
said Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian
Authority insider. They want to send a
chilling message, she said, “and it works.”
Abbas’ foreign backers, who view him as
key to delivering any future peace deal
with Israel and maintaining quiet in the
West Bank, have said little in public about
the issue. Instead, during a visit to the
West Bank in late March, US President
Barack Obama showered Abbas and his
security forces with praise for their efforts
to prevent militant attacks on Israel.
heads the human rights group Al-Haq.
“They fear the criticism is growing — that
they will lose the (Palestinian) authority —
and they are trying to keep it by acting like
this.”
Such insecurities are rooted in the political
split of 2007, when Hamas seized the Gaza
Strip from Abbas.
Since then, Hamas has been going after
sympathizers of Abbas’ Fatah movement
in Gaza, while Abbas’ security forces have
tried to dismantle the Hamas
infrastructure in the West Bank to prevent
a similar takeover there.
The new tactic of taking journalists and
bloggers to court has invited speculation
about timing and motive.
Reconciliation efforts have failed, and
both sides are entrenched in their
respective territories.
Some say Abbas and his inner circle are
lashing out at critics because they feel
increasingly vulnerable politically. Others
suggest the 78-year-old Abbas is either an
old-school Arab politician not used to
criticism or an out-of-touch leader getting
bad advice.
“It’s a weak authority and that’s why it’s
doing this,” said Shahwan Jabareen, who
The split has prevented new elections,
meaning Abbas has already overstayed his
term as president by four years,
weakening his claim to lead. His troubles
are compounded by a cash crisis in his
foreign aid-dependent government and
lack of progress toward his main objective
of negotiating terms of a Palestinian state
with Israel.
Sayfa 23