Just How Weak Is Abbas In The West Bank?

The Daily Alert has a translation of an article in Maariv from November 30 that indicates that there is less to Abbas' control in the West Bank than meets the eye.

Abbas' West Bank Rule an Optical Illusion - Amir Rappaport

Israel's security services believe that if they were not making arrests in the West Bank every night, it is quite probable that Hamas would overcome Fatah there as it did so easily in Gaza. In practical terms, this means that, to a great extent, Fatah control in the West Bank is an optical illusion. Israel's security services are concerned at clear signs of Hamas strengthening in the West Bank. Even in the Fatah stronghold of "secular" Ramallah, the number of mosques has doubled in recent years as the number of worshippers has increased. At the same time, Israel has been unable to block the large flow of Hamas money to its welfare institutions, which function much better than the failed PA institutions.

Hamas is building up its military capabilities in the West Bank. Its forces are training and building bunkers in cities like Nablus and Kalkilya, while its activists plan attacks on Israeli civilian targets. Given this reality, is there any point in conducting negotiations with the heads of Fatah when the issue being discussed is the transfer of land that Fatah is unable to control without the continued presence of the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shabak). Of additional concern are the thousands of rifles and millions of bullets that were brought in from Jordan for the Palestinian police. In recent years, due to intensive IDF activity against weapons smuggling, the price of a bullet had risen to tens of shekels. It has now fallen drastically as ammunition from PA police warehouses finds its way into the hands of terrorists. (Maariv-Hebrew, 30Nov07, posted with permission.)

Assuming that the US and Israel are aware how helpless Abbas and Fatah are in the West Bank, the question is just what is going through their minds in pushing ahead in talks with a man who is barely a figurehead in the West Bank. Even putting aside the incompetence and corruption of Abbas and his regime, his control of the West Bank is tenuous and getting weaker. With it's own obvious inability to govern, Hamas still remains stronger than Fatah.

Even assuming the reasoning behind the Annapolis charade is to develop an anti-Iran coalition, the end result is that Israel's enemies will be only too happy to insist that Israel make real concessions to her imaginary peace partner.

We can only hope this poorly conceived conference will be allowed to die on the vine.

Technorati Tag: Israel and West Bank and Annapolis and Abbas.