Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (57498)	8/1/2004 9:06:44 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 793670

The saga continues: Arafat sends gunmen to break up a pro-reform meeting, Dahlan tries to get support on the West Bank, and most interestingly, Arafat has stopped paying some of his militias. As always with Arafat, follow the money. It sounds like the squeeze is starting to pinch, and if only the damn Eurocrats can be convinced to stop paying Arafat, Dahlan may get somewhere. Analysis: What are Dahlan's chances? By KHALED ABU TOAMEH At a high-profile ceremony inside his battered headquarters, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday received an honorary doctorate from Al-Quds University. The event, broadcast live on the PA-controlled television and radio stations, was intended to signal that business is as usual for Arafat, who is facing one of the most serious challenges to his corruption-riddled regime since he returned triumphantly from Tunis in 1994. Today there are growing indications that Muhammad Dahlan and his cohorts are trying to export their mutiny from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. Sources close to Arafat claim that Dahlan has been offering large sums to young Fatah activists in Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron, and Bethlehem in an attempt to persuade them to join the anti-Arafat drive. Arafat, who turns 75 later this month, is doing his utmost to prevent the rebellion from spreading to the West Bank. Hours before being given the title of Dr. Yasser Arafat, the PA chairman ordered his loyalists in Nablus to break up a meeting organized by Fatah operatives and local legislators to demand reforms and transparency. The gunmen, belonging to the Fatah-affiliated Awdah Brigades, stormed the conference hall, shooting into the air and forcing the participants to flee. The gunmen admitted that they had been dispatched by Arafat's office. Arafat also instructed members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin to stage a demonstration in his support. The move came a day after the gunmen, led by Zakariya Zubeidi, set fire to the offices of the General Intelligence and local governor. Arafat loyalists are planning more demonstrations and rallies in the West Bank in the next few days to condemn Dahlan and those who are seeking to undermine Arafat's leadership. On the other hand, Dahlan's supporters are planning massive rallies in the Gaza Strip to demand an end to corruption and cronyism. Nevertheless, Dahlan's efforts to instigate anti-Arafat protests in the West Bank are likely to fail because he does not have any basis of power there. A former resident of Khan Yunis, Dahlan remains popular among many Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip. His previous attempts to establish centers of power in the West Bank were foiled by his No. 1 enemy Jibril Rajoub, Arafat's powerless national security adviser. Most of the West Bank cities are controlled today by various Fatah militias whose members have long been on Arafat's payroll. These gunmen are angry because they have not received their salaries for the past few months, but that has not affected their loyalty to Arafat. Each city in the West Bank has become an independent enclave of its own, ruled by local warlords and rival gangs and thugs. Arafat is well aware that the majority of the gunmen roaming the streets of the West Bank are his soldiers on the ground and that he can rely on them to squash any move to undermine his power. That's why he maintains direct phone contact with the leader of each Fatah militia. Yet Dr. Arafat is likely to lose these men's support unless he starts paying them again. jpost.com