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May 24, 2002/Sivan 13 5762, Vol. 54, No. 36
Gaza chief gaining influence
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Gaza Strip security chief Moham-mad Dahlan appears to be emerging as the winner in the power struggle that has followed Israel's counter-terrorism sweep in the West Bank in late March and April.
Palestinians rallied around Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat while Israel's Operation Protective Wall was still in progress. But they have been unprec-edentedly vocal in criticizing Arafat and demanding reforms as they survey the massive damage the P.A.'s involvement with terrorism brought down on Palestinian society.
One idea gradually gaining momentum is to preserve Arafat as the symbol of Palestinian leadership while gradually transferring much of his power to a second in command.
In the emerging power struggle, Dahlan, 41, has vaulted over other expected contenders to become the most powerful figure in the Palestinian territories after Arafat himself.
The rise in Dahlan's political stock has coincided with the fall from grace of his West Bank counterpart, Col. Jibril Rajoub. Rajoub lost favor with Arafat, the political establishment and the general Palestinian public because he was not in Arafat's headquarters during the month it was besieged, and because Rajoub's own Ramallah headquarters capitulated quickly to the Israeli forces.
In contrast, Dahlan, who heads the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, enjoys Arafat's trust and maintains good contacts with the Americans, the Egyptians, Hamas - and even the Israelis.
Before Operation Protective Wall, it was generally believed that the Palestinian succession struggle would focus on two political-security axes. One comprises Rajoub, West Bank Fatah Party head Marwan Barghouti, Arafat deputy Mahmoud Abbas and PLO Jerusalem official Sari Nusseibeh.
On the other side is West Bank General Intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi, the leadership of Arafat's Force 17 bodyguard force, other leading PLO officials who returned from exile in Tunis with Arafat and the fundamentalist group Hamas.
But the Israeli military operation wreaked havoc with those groupings. Rajoub is out of favor, Barghouti is in an Israeli jail, the popularity of Abbas and Nusseibeh has plummeted, Hamas is reportedly under heavy pressure from its Saudi financial mentors to hold its fire, Tirawi and Force 17 leaders are heavily implicated in terrorism, and the Tunis clique is perceived by the Palestinian public as hopelessly corrupt.
Though no Palestinians are yet calling for Arafat to leave the scene, many - and the international community - are demanding fundamental reforms of the Palestinian Authority.
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