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| Middle East |
| Yasser Decides Cabinet, Security Changes |
| 2002-06-01 |
| President-for-Life Yasser Arafat, under international and internal pressure to reform his Palestinian Authority, has named new ministers and redesigned his security apparatus, a Palestinian newspaper said on Saturday. Al-Quds, in the latest of a series of reports in Palestinian media, said the cabinet reshuffle would take effect next week, with the number of portfolios trimmed to 28 from 32. Four entire seats? That's all he could cut? Parkinson is chuckling in his grave. What happened to cutting back to 20 seats, which'd still be too many by half...? It said Arafat had created no post of prime minister, which would leave his executive power as president intact. He was to relinquish the religious affairs, general education and sport and youth portfolios, retaining only the interior portfolio. Of course no prime minister. Yasser wouldn't give up that much power without a gun held to his head. The seats he's "relinquishing" are notsquats that could easily be covered by party hacks, if they merit cabinet-level attention at all. But this would give him control of a new "security council" comprising four Palestinian security agencies for self-rule areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, al-Quds said. That's where the guns are. That's the important part... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |