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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (44541)	9/7/2003 3:55:42 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Palestinian leader feuds with Arafat until the end By Henry Chu \| Los Angeles Times Posted September 7, 2003 JERUSALEM -- After barely 100 days in office, Mahmoud Abbas ended his tenure as Palestinian prime minister Saturday exactly as he began it: mired in a power struggle with Yasser Arafat. After Abbas took office, he was never able to wrest enough power or popularity away from Arafat to push through even a modest agenda, or to advance a U.S.-backed peace plan known as the "road map." The bickering between the two men came to overshadow Abbas' entire premiership, from his efforts at reforming the internal workings of the Palestinian Authority to his attempts to rein in militant groups, analysts said. Arafat was determined to remain the symbol and substance of the Palestinian struggle for statehood. "What went wrong from the start was the misconception that an appointed Palestinian prime minister would have any more effective authority than any other appointed prime minister" in the Arab world, said Mark Heller, an Israeli political analyst. "For some reason, there was some expectation that he would be the exception. But the rule is that every other Arab-appointed prime minister . . . is usually a nonentity and is usually disposable." Still, many foreign governments, including the Bush administration, hailed Abbas' appointment and talked him up as a moderate who understood the need to stop the 35-month-old Palestinian uprising and implement the road map, which envisioned a Palestinian state in three years. Even some of Abbas' supporters -- namely Israel and the United States -- became a liability for him. Continued declarations of support from Washington fueled suspicion among Palestinians that their premier was an American puppet. After the Aqaba summit, Hamas accused Abbas of giving away too much and cut off talks with him. By the time the Palestinian Legislative Council gathered Thursday to hear Abbas sum up his first 100 days in office, the mood in the leadership was tense. Outside the building, the scene was even uglier. Masked men from the armed wing of Arafat's Fatah faction pounded on the door with hatchets and clubs in protest against Abbas, who looked frightened as guards hustled him inside. Two days later, Abbas handed in his resignation.