A day after eight veteran Fatah leaders called for delaying next month's elections, about 200 Palestinian policemen, shooting into the air, briefly took over several government buildings on Monday to protest the Palestinian Authority's failure to impose law and order in Gaza before returning to their positions.
Police have been powerless to halt the wave of kidnappings and other violence that has gripped Gaza since Israel withdrew from the area in September. Last week, an officer was killed in a shootout between two rival families.
How naïve I am to presume that a police officers in the Palestinian Authority are responsible for enforcing the law and keeping order though I am quite sure that they will not be calling on PA Chairman Abbas to rein in the militants but I bet it would go a long way if the PA Security forces did disarm all the terrorists.
I haven’t commented on reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas is considering delaying the scheduled January 25th elections despite calls by senior Fatah members for an indefinite delay because I take it as a given that this election will be delayed. Abbas is not prepared to risk Fatah losing control of the legislative council or he should be - if he and the old guard of Fatah want to live to see 2007.
All that is needed is for a suitable flimsy reason that places the blame squarely on the Israeli shoulders and Arabs voters in Jerusalem seems to be the excuse of the moment though Israeli authorities have not said that Arab residents of Jerusalem cannot vote in the Palestinian elections so there is still time and room to change the rationale. One thing about Fatah is that it a remarkably fluid and versatile organization.
No comments:
Post a Comment