Arafat Rebounds (Again)

摘要

The meeting at yasir Arafat's office in Ramallah on Saturday, Aug. 23, was tense. For months Arafat and his rival, Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, had quarreled bitterly over who would control the Palestinian Authority's 53,000-man security apparatus. Under an unwieldy system currently in place, each man supervised roughly half the soldiers and police. Now, with a ceasefire in ruins and radical Islamic groups urging Israelis to stock up on "coffins," consolidating those forces under one command had become an urgent priority. As Arafat and Abbas glowered at each other, members of Fatah's Central Committee attempted to broker a compromise. They proposed that an Arafat loyalist named Nasser Yusuf take over as Interior minister―and also take full responsibility for security. Arafat accepted Yusuf, but demanded that Arafat himself continue to command an elite bodyguard unit known as Force 17, the powerful General Intelligence Apparatus and the National Security Force, the Palestinian equivalent of an army. Abbas also backed Yusuf―but not if Arafat kept personal control over three armed groups. The rivals argued heatedly, until the Fatah men gave up in frustration. The argument left relations between Arafat and Abbas frostier than ever. "They acted like little kids" says one Fatah member who was present.