West Bank politics
Here's a headline you never thought you'd see, "PA suspends Al Jazeera in West Bank." Read it again, it's not Israel that is suspending Al Jazeera, even though AJ is virulently anti-Israel (in Arabic - it's a bit more muted in English) and is in fact dominated by a pro-Islamist agenda supported by its Bahraini owners. So why is the PA suspending AJ?
The answer is complex. Within the PLO there are many political strands, one of them is the "old guard" who were in exile from Lebanon in Tunisia, most of whom came back with Yasir Arafat (under an agreement with PM Yitzhak Rabin), and this includes Arafat's successor Pres. Abbas of the PA and most of his followers. But, some PLO officials chose to stay in Tunisia, rather than be co-opted as they saw it by Israel. One of the chief of these was the PLO Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddumi. Since he was isolated from the leadership that has taken over the PA, Kaddumi has often criticized their actions and policies, and has stated that he considers himself senior to the Foreign Minister of the PA.
Now, Kaddumi dropped a bombshell when interviewed recently in Amman, he announced that Arafat had revealed to him before he died that there was a plot to assassinate him by Abbas in league with PM Sharon of Israel and unnamed CIA co-conspirators. And Kaddumi accuses Abbas of having assassinated Arafat in order to replace him.
Needless to say, this caused a storm of reaction in the West Bank, this is a criticism emanating not from Israel, nor from Hamas in Gaza, but from within the PLO and Fatah itself. Since this accusation was broadcast in the PA by Al Jazeera, Abbas has taken the extreme action of supending the right of AJ to broadcast there. Among the reactions, many PA leaders have accused Kaddumi of being "deranged" and "senile," including the head of the PA security forces Mohammed Dahlan. This kind of rhetoric within the PLO is usually heard prior to an assassination. I presume Kaddumi has a safe place to hide for a while.
Meanwhile, the economic situation in the PA is improving, with a ca. 6% GDP/capita increase in the past year, notwithstanding the world economic downturn, compared to negative growth in previous years. This has been attributed to the current Israeli Government's policies of removing 150 checkpoints in PA territory and assisting the economic development of the PA, together with funds being pumped in by the EU and the activities of Tony Blair, the Quartet's representative, who is focusing on economic development. Apparently while the standard of living in the West Bank is rising, and there is a new middle class emerging in places such as Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin, the situation in Gaza is steadily worsening. As far as we in Israel are concerned these trends are going in the right directions.
(See: Signs of Hope emerge in the West Bank, Matthew Bronner, NYT: https://mail1.ekmd.huji.ac.il/Exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17westbank.html?_r=1%26hpw
The answer is complex. Within the PLO there are many political strands, one of them is the "old guard" who were in exile from Lebanon in Tunisia, most of whom came back with Yasir Arafat (under an agreement with PM Yitzhak Rabin), and this includes Arafat's successor Pres. Abbas of the PA and most of his followers. But, some PLO officials chose to stay in Tunisia, rather than be co-opted as they saw it by Israel. One of the chief of these was the PLO Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddumi. Since he was isolated from the leadership that has taken over the PA, Kaddumi has often criticized their actions and policies, and has stated that he considers himself senior to the Foreign Minister of the PA.
Now, Kaddumi dropped a bombshell when interviewed recently in Amman, he announced that Arafat had revealed to him before he died that there was a plot to assassinate him by Abbas in league with PM Sharon of Israel and unnamed CIA co-conspirators. And Kaddumi accuses Abbas of having assassinated Arafat in order to replace him.
Needless to say, this caused a storm of reaction in the West Bank, this is a criticism emanating not from Israel, nor from Hamas in Gaza, but from within the PLO and Fatah itself. Since this accusation was broadcast in the PA by Al Jazeera, Abbas has taken the extreme action of supending the right of AJ to broadcast there. Among the reactions, many PA leaders have accused Kaddumi of being "deranged" and "senile," including the head of the PA security forces Mohammed Dahlan. This kind of rhetoric within the PLO is usually heard prior to an assassination. I presume Kaddumi has a safe place to hide for a while.
Meanwhile, the economic situation in the PA is improving, with a ca. 6% GDP/capita increase in the past year, notwithstanding the world economic downturn, compared to negative growth in previous years. This has been attributed to the current Israeli Government's policies of removing 150 checkpoints in PA territory and assisting the economic development of the PA, together with funds being pumped in by the EU and the activities of Tony Blair, the Quartet's representative, who is focusing on economic development. Apparently while the standard of living in the West Bank is rising, and there is a new middle class emerging in places such as Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin, the situation in Gaza is steadily worsening. As far as we in Israel are concerned these trends are going in the right directions.
(See: Signs of Hope emerge in the West Bank, Matthew Bronner, NYT: https://mail1.ekmd.huji.ac.il/Exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17westbank.html?_r=1%26hpw
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:39 PM
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