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April 8, 2005/Adar II 28 5765, Volume 57, No. 32
Abbas tries to prove his strength to militants
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Four months after he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas is fighting for his political life - and possibly for the survival of the peace process.
Last week, Abbas fought off militants' attempts to challenge the authority of the Palestinian government and dismissed a number of senior officers who had failed to prevent the challenge.
Abbas forced the resignation of West Bank security chief Ismail Jaber after riots aimed at the P.A. president ended with shots fired at his Ramallah headquarters.
Abbas took the move primarily to prevent the possible collapse of his rule, but it also is an advance payment to President Bush, with whom he was scheduled to meet later this month. According to the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, the many P.A. security bodies should be whittled down to three.
Avi Dichter, head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, recently met with Abbas and expressed Israel's concern at the P.A.'s failure to reform the security services, disarm militant groups and stop terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.
Abbas issued a presidential decree over the weekend mandating the forced retirement of thousands of police officers over age 60, cutting both the size of the armed forces and his budget. Yet in a confrontation with the core of his opposition, the Al Aksa Brigades, the terrorist militia of his own ruling Fatah party, Abbas backed down.
Some Al-Aksa terrorists threatened to violate the truce declared Feb. 8 if the Palestinian Authority continued to pressure their men.
After the March 30 riots, Abbas ordered a crackdown on the militants. He fired the Ramallah commander, Younis al-Hass, whose men did nothing to stop the gunmen.
But he did not go further, and ultimately he agreed to a deal allowing the terrorists to keep their weapons.
The riots, and Abbas' failure to cope with them, intensified the P.A.'s internal crisis. To protest Abbas' deal with the terrorists, the commander of the general intelligence forces in the West Bank, Tawfik Tirawi, resigned March 31, charging that his fellow security commanders were not doing enough to restore law and order.
Abbas rejected Tirawi's resignation and Tirawi eventually withdrew it.
P.A. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei condemned the March 30 riots and called on Palestinians to abide by the law.
"These acts serve the interests of those who are against our people," he said. "We must all respect the rule of law."
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