(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies - Bar-Ilan University) Hillel Frisch - Abu Mazen is seeking to amass power as quickly as possible. His election is the easy part of his task. Sharing power with an elected legislature will prove much more difficult and dangerous, which is the reason why Abu Mazen will probably postpone such elections indefinitely. So many different centers of political and para-military power in the PA exist, each with widely differing ideological agendas, that an Abu Mazen government will be hard pressed to gain an overall monopoly of power. Meaningful negotiations with Israel can only take place if Abu Mazen consolidates power - and uses this power to confront and control more extreme factions. On both counts, his chances remain doubtful.
2005-01-07 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive