(Foreign Affairs) Grant Rumley - For Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the head of Fatah, the appointment of Mahmoud al-Aloul as Fatah's first-ever vice president was a stroke of tactical genius. Abbas' allies and rivals have hounded him for years about the need to appoint a deputy. By naming Aloul, Abbas has elevated a man who lacks the influence to directly challenge his leadership. Aloul is now Fatah's head of mobilization, a role in which he frequently organizes protests against Israel. Unlike Abbas, he has at times praised armed "resistance" - a euphemism for terrorist attacks. In secret internal elections, Hamas elected a military commander, Yehya Sinwar, to serve as its next leader in Gaza. A veteran of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, he spent over 20 years in prison for coordinating terror activities before being released in 2011 in the exchange for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. A hard-liner, he protested the terms of the prisoner swap that led to his freedom as too conciliatory and has reportedly killed more than a dozen Hamas militants for collaborating with Israel. The writer is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2017-03-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive