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Abbas: Don't worry, be happy (AP)
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| By Associated Press March 17, 2006 |
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Several officials in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party have called on him to resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority to protest Israel's raid of a West Bank prison earlier this week, party officials said Friday.
The raid, in which Israeli troops grabbed suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, was seen as a blow to Abbas' prestige. Abbas denounced the raid as an insult to his people.
During a meeting of senior Fatah officials Thursday evening, several suggested to Abbas that he resign and dissolve the Palestinian Authority, said Taysir Nasrallah, a senior Fatah activist from the West Bank city of Nablus.
Were the Palestinian government to be dissolved, Israel would be forced to step in as an occupying power and assume direct responsibility for the Palestinians. A dissolution of the Palestinian Authority would also render the victory of the Islamic militant Hamas in January parliament elections meaningless.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Hamas party plans to go it alone next week with its new Palestinian government after talks with other Palestinian factions failed to produce a single partner, a development almost guaranteed to lead to international isolation and a severe cash crunch.
Hamas leaders had one more round of talks with other parties on Thursday, but none, not even the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, could coexist with the harsh principles of the militant Islamic group.
The new Cabinet, to be presented to parliament next week, must also win the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been telling Hamas, which swept January elections, that it must first renounce violence and accept interim peace accords with Israel.
Hamas has rejected those demands, also made by Israel, the U.S. and Europe, which label Hamas a terror group. Israel has already suspended monthly transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax money to the Palestinians, and Western donors are considering cutting aid _ a critical element in the Palestinian Authority's deficit budget.
Representatives from the U.S., Russia, European Union and United Nations _ the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators _ met in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday to discuss how to bypass the Palestinian Authority and get aid directly to the Palestinians.
The World Bank warned in a report released Thursday that cutting off funds would devastate the struggling Palestinian economy.
Without the money, the Palestinian economy would contract by 27 percent and income levels would drop by 30 percent this year alone _ levels comparable to a deep depression.
The Hamas victory has placed Abbas in the difficult situation of having to deal with a Cabinet controlled by a rival party while facing crippling economic sanctions.
The main sticking point in Palestinian coalition talks has been Hamas' refusal to recognize a 1988 unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence that included recognition of Israel. Abbas' Fatah spurned Hamas overtures for that reason, among others.
Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri said Thursday marked the final round of negotiations. He said that if Hamas did not find coalition partners, it would present a Cabinet of independents, technocrats and Hamas politicians to parliament on Monday.
Hamas has said it would reserve the top posts of foreign minister, interior minister and finance minister for itself.
Hamas hoped for a broad-based government, partly to deflect international criticism, but refused to bend its principles.
Also Thursday, Justice Ministry officials recommended that six prisoners taken in a raid on the Palestinian prison in Jericho on Tuesday be tried in a civilian court instead of a military tribunal, the ministry said. Attorney General Meni Mazuz is to make the final decision.
The prisoners include PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat and four members of the radical group, suspected in the 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister. The sixth is the alleged financier of a Palestinian weapons ship seized by Israel in January 2002.
Opponents of acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert charged that the Jericho raid was an election stunt, less than two weeks before Israelis choose a new parliament. Olmert hotly denied that.
Polls in two Israeli newspapers Thursday showed almost identical results, with small changes in Olmert's favor from the week before.
Olmert's Kadima maintained its huge lead with 39 seats of the 120 in the parliament, ahead of the moderate Labor with 19-20 and hawkish Likud with15, the polls said.
The poll in the Maariv daily by the Teleseker firm interviewed 500 voters, while the Dahaf poll in the Yediot Ahronot paper covered 1,002 voters. Both factored in only those who said they were sure to vote and quoted margins of error of 4.4 percentage points.
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