No longer in control

Yesterday a senior PA official in Ramallah was quoted in a front page article
in the Jerusalem Post as admitting that "we are no longer in control" of the PA,
and comparing the anarchic situation to that in Somalia, where there is no
national Government but local warlords control fiefdoms.
The British human rights worker Kate Barton and her parents were released
Sunday after a few days in the custody of an unknown terrorist group, and
were evacuated via Israel. She vowed to continue her work on behalf of the
Palestinian people (some people just don't get it). In recent months 17
foreigners have been kidnapped in the Gaza strip, but no-one has been arrested
for any of these incidents. And today it was announced that another Italian
foreign aid worker has been kidnapped. Also, Fatah gunmen issued a warning
to the election observers from various European countries, some 100 of whom
have arrived prior to the Jan 26 election, that it will not tolerate their
presence and it forcibly evicted some of them from a hotel in Nablus and
threatened to kidnap them.
A few days ago the armed PA police at the Rafah crossing between the PA and
Egypt took over the crossing by force and made certain demands of the PA,
including more money. The EU monitors of the crossing, who are there by PA
and Israeli agreement, and the foreigners who were present, escaped and ran
for safety to the Israeli post nearby from where the IDF is monitoring the
traffic thru the crossing. The car of the Pakistani Ambassador to the PA was
shot up and he and his family were forced to run to the Israeli side for
safety.
Hamas has said that it is suspicious of Fatah's intention to postpone the
election, which it hopes to win, but at the same time issued a statement
saying that it will not participate in the election if the Arabs in East
Jerusalem are not allowed by Israel to vote. This is strange since Israel
announced earlier that it is going to allow the small number of East Jerusalem
Arabs who have registered to vote to do so via the Post Offices, as before.
Also last night the UN Club in Gaza was taken over by a gang of Islamist
gunmen who blew the place up, although no-one was killed. It was one
of the few places in Gaza where liquor was sold legally, and had long been
threatened by the Islamist organizations. A 14 year old boy was killed in
a gun battle between rival forces in Khan Yunis, and several PA offices are
under terrorist occupation.
For the first time the IAF caught a team of three in the act of launching a
rocket into Israel from inside the new north Gaza security zone, and killed
two of them. Although the PA under Pres. Abbas has repeatedly stated that its
policy is against such rocket attacks, nevertheless it lodged a complaint with
Israel and the UN for the attack which it blamed purely on Israel. The PA
statement did no acknowledge that those killed had been in the process of
launching a rocket at Israel (no doubt Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner would
have agreed with that PA statement, after all violence only begets violence).
Finally, all four terrorist groups, al Aksa Brigades (Fatah), Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, and the Popular Front Committees, have declared that the temporary
ceasefire (calming) is at an end, and they all vowed to start active attacks
against Israel in the new year. As a consequence all IDF forces are on
maximum alert.
So what is the point of having a government in the PA, its as if it doesn't
exist, and Pres. Abbas chose this time to do a tour of the Gulf States.