Danny Rubenstein-23/07/2007

Danny Rubenstein, (Haaretz)

"For a moment this past weekend, it seemed Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was getting stronger, while Hamas and its leadership were in a slump. The prisoners' release was presented to the public as a success for Abbas, who was very keen to point out - to avoid finding himself in hot water - that Israel alone prepared the list of the released, without him or his aides knowing anything about it. Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip, had to welcome the release, but he immediately added that one must be wary of the traps being laid by Israel, which is paying the PA what amounts to political bribes to divide the Palestinian people by releasing Fatah prisoners only. An Arabic- language daily in London said openly what was heard on the street corners of East Jerusalem: The release of 250 prisoners out of a total of nearly 11,000 is humiliating; an insult to Abbas.

To a certain degree it was surprising to hear that Hamas' leader in Damascus, Khaled Meshal, before his meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week, had apologized for the mistakes made during Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. Of course, he stressed that he did not apologize to anyone - only before Allah - but this could also be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Add to this some of the more vociferous attacks against Hamas by Fatah leaders still in the Gaza Strip, like Zacharia al-Ara, who said Hamas behaved worse than the Israeli occupier, and it is fair to say that Abbas and his Fatah supporters sense a weakening Hamas.

They rallied, and their campaign against what they call the "bloody Hamas overthrow in the Gaza Strip" is becoming more focused and determined. The insults and accusations that Abbas used against "the person known as" Khaled Meshal and "the person known as" Ismail Haniyeh during his speech at the PLO Central Committee meeting in Ramallah have destroyed any possibility for dialogue and compromise. The use of the expression "the person known as" is reserved in Palestinian parlance to describe the most despicable criminals and collaborators.

Late last week I sat with the delegates of the PLO Central Committee in Ramallah to get a taste of the atmosphere and hear what was being said. Abbas' presentation was neither theatrical nor electrifying like those of Yasser Arafat. That was to be expected. The applause he received was also weak. Many of the approximately 100 members who came to the deliberations of the central committee - an intermediate body between the 700 members of the PLO National Council and the Executive Committee, which is similar to a PLO government - wore suits and ties. Thirty delegates who came from Amman were particularly prominent in their formal attire. It appears that for them this was a festive occasion."

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