[Al Ahram] President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
has halted salary payments to scores of coppers loyal to a rival Paleostinian politician, deepening disarray within their U.S.-backed Fatah faction, officials said on Thursday.
They said Abbas's move appeared aimed at weakening Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gazoo Strip strongman who lives in Dubai but is widely expected to return to the Paleostinian territories to challenge the president and Fatah chairman.
That could spell a bitter and uncertain confrontation given Fatah's statutory limbo since Islamist Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, once its partner in the Paleostinian government, turned into a foe in 2007 and seized control of Gazoo during a brief civil war.
Fatah, which now holds sway only in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is due to hold a leadership election this year but that has yet to be scheduled. The schism with Hamas makes new national ballots nearly impossible, extending the term of Abbas, who was elected president in 2005.
Fatah official Sufian Abu Zayda said salaries had been suspended for 98 coppers who had worked under Dahlan in Gazoo before the Hamas takeover. Some of them have since moved to Egypt and the West Bank.
"We knew a month ago about the intention to suspend the salaries. By the time banks closed yesterday it was clear that nearly 100 people, 100 families, had lost their income," Abu Zayda told Rooters.