Update from the NY Times on the internal Pal struggle. People tend to forget that releasing prisoners is not on the original "road map," so if Israel does not release them it is not their fault if the Pals go bananas on the issue.
Palestinian Leadership Roiled in Dispute Over Concessions
By JAMES BENNET - NEW YORK TIMES
JERUSALEM, July 8 - The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, today canceled talks set for Wednesday with his Israeli counterpart, and Palestinian officials said that Mr. Abbas had threatened to resign in response to a storm of Palestinian criticism that he had gained little from Israel in exchange for renouncing violence.
Mr. Abbas's allies said that he was unlikely to act on his threat of resignation, which he has made in previous internal political fights. But he did step down today from the top governing body of Fatah, the faction he helped found with Yasir Arafat.
In a further setback to an American-backed peace initiative, the militant group Islamic Jihad took responsibility for a bombing that killed a 65-year-old Israeli woman in her home on Monday night.
The bombing, the work of a terrorist whose body was also found at the scene, was the first such attack since the main Palestinian factions, including Islamic Jihad, said on June 29 that they were suspending violence.
The stated reasons for the renewed killing and Palestinian political turmoil were the same: Palestinian anger that Israel had not agreed to release more of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in its custody. Other Palestinian leaders unhappy with Mr. Abbas appeared to be seizing on that issue to undermine him.
In meetings Monday night in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Mr. Abbas faced harsh criticism from senior members of Fatah who are allied with Yasir Arafat, and from members of other factions. They said that he had failed so far to extract significant concessions from Israel, particularly on the question of prisoners, Palestinian officials said.
In response to the criticism, Mr. Abbas resigned today from the top governing body of Fatah, the Central Committee. He also threatened to step down as prime minister, Palestinian officials said.
Sakher Habash, a member of the central committee allied with Mr. Arafat, acknowledged what he called "the crisis." But referring to Mr. Abbas by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen, he said: "We will not accept his resignation. We understand Abu Mazen's position. He's under pressure."
Israel is not obligated by the peace plan to release any prisoners, a move that is as noxious to Israelis as it is appealing to Palestinians. Yet in what Israel called an effort to boost Mr. Abbas, it has begun releasing some prisoners, and on Sunday the government said it would free about 300 more, of the more than 5,500 it is believed to hold.
But Israel said it would give preference to people under 18 and over 60, and that it would release no one implicated in violence or connected to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Beyond the question of prisoners, Mr. Abbas came under fire as letting Israel dictate how the new peace plan is put into action. For example, some Palestinian officials said he should have demanded more of a role for the three members of the so-called quartet that drew up the "road map" plan with the Bush administration ? the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia.
Israel sought to minimize the role of those three members of the quartet, regarding them as biased toward the Palestinians. Their role in the peace process has substantially diminished.
Some officials also criticized Mr. Abbas as failing to push for a speedier Israeli withdrawal from areas of that West Bank that, according to the Oslo agreement, are supposed to be under Palestinian control.
"He's coming under a lot of pressure under the various factions, that he can't keep having meetings with Sharon when things aren't really improving on the ground," a Palestinian official said. This official said that Mr. Abbas would have to rethink his negotiating strategy but that the meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, could still take place by Sunday.
In a sign of Israeli concern that Mr. Abbas's position was precarious, Mr. Sharon's government did not criticize his decision to cancel Wednesday's meeting. One Israeli official said that the government viewed the cancellation as a move against other Palestinian leaders, not against Israel. "It is not in our interest to criticize," the official said.
Mr. Abbas's abrupt cancellation in the wake of Palestinian, not Israeli, violence came in marked contrast to his genial appearance in public last Tuesday with Mr. Sharon, before their last meeting. Mr. Abbas stood at a lectern decorated with a symbol of the Jewish state, a menorah, shook hands warmly with Mr. Sharon and laughed with him at a private joke.
Some Palestinian officials said that Mr. Abbas got too far out in front of his own people with that appearance, in which he declared that Palestinians would pursue their dispute with Israel only by "diplomatic means."
Last week, Israel withdrew its forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, returning policing responsibility to Palestinian forces. But though Palestinians are now freer to move within Gaza, Bethlehem remains closed off by Israeli forces, and Palestinians say they are no more able to travel through the West Bank than they were before the peace plan went into force.
Israel says it cannot risk removing checkpoints from around Palestinian cities for fear of suicide bombers. It says it will not withdraw from more West Bank cities and towns until Mr. Abbas takes action to break apart militant groups. Israel seized control of those areas a year ago after a series of suicide bombings.
The Israeli reaction to the bombing Monday night was also muted. The attack occurred in an Israeli town, Kfar Yavetz, near the boundary of the northern West Bank, where Israeli forces have not ceded security control.
A police spokesman, Gil Kleiman, said that the police were treating the bombing as a "probable suicide attack," but that it was unusual because it had taken place inside a home.
The explosion killed the bomber and Mazal Afari, 65, the mother of eight. It brought down part of the ceiling and injured three of Mrs. Afari's grandchildren in the house, Israeli officials said.
While warning that a suicide bombing that killed more people would end the peace process, the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, told Israeli Army radio that this bombing was "not a huge attack," and that "we have an opportunity now that we must not miss."
Islamic Jihad identified the bomber as a 22-year-old from the northern West Bank and took responsibility for the attack in a fax sent to The Associated Press. The faxed message warned, "Release the prisoners or the consequences will be grave."
Dr. Muhammad Al-Hindi, a political leader of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, said the attack had been carried out by "an exceptional group within Jihad" stirred up by Israeli arrests in recent days of West Bank members of the group.
He asserted that Islamic Jihad was committed to halting violence for three months. "We're going to study the Israeli release of prisoners within the three months," he said. "We want to see a real release of prisoners, a big number."
nytimes.com |
