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Waiting on America

(Al-Ahram Egypt) Graham Usher - The U.S. veto of a UN Security Council resolution demanding that Israel not exile or eliminate Arafat confirms Palestinian fears that the American opposition is anything but permanent. If Arafat is "removed," what would follow? One idea currently going around (including within Arafat's Fatah movement) is to dissolve the PA, and with it all prospects of a political process. Another scenario is that the PA continues in some shape or other while Palestinian forces fight over the mantle left by Arafat. This augurs less a civil war between Fatah and Hamas (since the Islamists have never been interested in leadership of the PA) than a bloody power struggle within Fatah, with the most likely fault-line between its young fighters and old guard. "We'd have militias everywhere, like Lebanon," says an Arafat aide. Few Palestinians believe Hamas actively seeks the demise of the PA. But even fewer doubt collapse would wound Fatah more and that Hamas would be the ultimate beneficiary. Hamas has always viewed the PA as a threat as much as a representative. Last week the PA finally agreed to "unify" the various Palestinian police forces under one command. But that command is not going to be an "empowered prime minister," as called for in the roadmap. It is going to be the PLO's National Security Council, headed by Arafat. In the meantime, all are aware that the only thing that separates Israel's decision to remove Arafat "in principle" from the actual execution of that removal is the American veto.
2003-09-19 00:00:00
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