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Abbas struggles to meet expectations
From the roof of a half-wrecked three-story home at the edge of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian policemen stand guard over Mahmoud Abbas' biggest achievement in 100 days as president: a truce with Israel.But the makeshift observation post from which the officers try to prevent infiltrations into an Israeli no-go zone is as wobbly as the cease-fire. And even if the truce survives repeated infractions on both sides, most Palestinians are likely to remain frustrated by poverty, joblessness and Israeli restrictions on their movements. Abbas, who was sworn in Jan. 15, has also been slow to throw out corrupt politicians, or tame gunmen who have terrorized Palestinians with theft and extortion. The Palestinian leader says Israel is stingy with confidence-boosting concessions such as lifting travel restrictions, and that the chaos he inherited from Yasser Arafat can't be untangled overnight. While Israel says he has done little to meet its demand to disarm its enemies, Abbas complained last week that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is systematically trying to undercut him and not keeping promises made at a February summit. "Israeli officials have not stopped inciting for a moment," Abbas told the Haaretz daily. Meanwhile, the growing discontent at home could eventually cost Abbas his job, or at the least force him to accept Islamic Hamas as a partner in government. Hamas is challenging Abbas' Fatah movement in July 17 parliamentary elections and scoring points by promising a clean government while playing down its ideology which calls for Israel's destruction. It also benefits from a perception that Fatah, which has controlled Palestinian politics since the 1960s, is arrogant and corrupt. "I'm voting for Hamas," said a seething Ahmed Kishta, 46, a lifelong Fatah loyalist, sitting on a plastic garden chair in an alley in the Rafah refugee camp. Kishta once owned a small brick factory and now survives on Hamas' food handouts. Nothing matters to him except that three of his four sons are college-educated and jobless. Rafah, a shantytown of 125,000 on the Gaza-Egypt border, was among the hardest-hit in more than four years of fighting. Since 2000, Israeli troops have widened a buffer zone along the border to push back gunmen and block tunnels through which Palestinians were smuggling weapons from Egypt. In the process the Israelis demolished some 3,200 Rafah houses, leaving 15,360 people homeless. Big changes are afoot in Gaza. Israel plans to withdraw from the 140-square-mile territory this summer, ending a 38-year occupation. It has handed him control of two West Bank towns it seized during the fighting, and has released 500 prisoners. But Palestinians expect much more. A test of Abbas' standing will come next month in local elections in Gaza and the West Bank. In Rafah, Hamas is confident it can depose the Fatah-appointed local council. A measure of Fatah's desperation is an effort by some activists to postpone the parliamentary election until the fall, when the Israelis will have left and Abbas will be able to claim the credit even though Israel decided on it unilaterally long before he came to office. A delay would also get Abbas past an Aug. 4 party conference, the first in 16 years, which could pick untainted candidates for parliament. Hamas joined the truce after making Abbas promise to honor the July 17 election date, and Abbas has said he would hold the vote on time. He is now reviewing a new election law, and his quick approval would clear the bill for a final vote in parliament — and elections on time. Hamas, meanwhile, knows the truce is popular, and breaking it could cost votes. For his part, Abbas has tried to appease Hamas by letting it keep its weapons, albeit out of sight. Sharon complained to President Bush at their meeting this month that Abbas is coddling the militants, and threatened to hold up further peace moves. However, according to a senior Israeli official, Sharon also told Bush he had known Abbas for many years and that, "There is no doubt he represents a departure from Yasser Arafat's strategy of terror." Hamas, meanwhile, is torn by bitter arguments over whether to abandon hard-line positions and appeal more to mainstream voters. Its secret councils, or shura, in Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinian diaspora will eventually hold a vote that could shape future negotiations with Israel. As the 70-year-old Abbas maneuvers among the Americans, the Israelis, Hamas, out-of-control gunmen and frustrated voters, his biggest concern is that a single violent incident could spark a chain reaction and bring down his prized cease-fire. So far it hasn't happened. A suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed four Israelis on Feb. 26, 18 days into the truce, and provoked no retaliation. On April 10, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian teens who entered the Rafah no-go area, and militants responded by shelling Israeli towns. At his rooftop observation post on the edge of Rafah, Palestinian police Lt. Sharif Ghanem and his four men try to keep the peace, making sure children, shepherds — and militants — stay away from the no-go zone. The Israeli soldiers behind the wall are invisible to the Palestinian officers. They only see the clouds of dust kicked up by jeeps or tanks, and hear occasional explosions set off by Israeli troops searching for smuggling tunnels. Ghanem, 30, said he is increasingly skeptical the cease-fire will hold, but prays for a miracle. "We don't want to waste more blood of our martyrs," he said. Palestinians are holding Abbas to unrealistic standards, says Yasser Najar, an economist and Fatah member. Abbas can't be expected to lower Gaza's 60 percent unemployment in such a short time, he says, and Israel's pullout will only yield economic fruit in months or years, with the planned creation of a port and free trade and industrial zones. However, Najar acknowledged that his Fatah movement has much to answer for. "We took too many things for granted. One of them is the public," he said. "For people to start believing us, those of us who wear Italian suits ... have to change the Italian suits and let go of the luxurious cars." Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-04-24 |
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