Abbas threatens unconstitutional intervention as inter-factional rivalry reaches one step from open warfare, writes Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank The latest episode of the protracted and now bloody showdown between Fatah and Hamas began Saturday, 16 December, when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, also head of Fatah, delivered a scathing speech blaming Hamas for the current political and financial predicament facing the Palestinians. Speaking at his rehabilitated headquarters in Ramallah before a large audience of Fatah leaders and officials, as well as a number of invited public figures, Abbas castigated and ridiculed the Hamas-led government for nearly every problem under the sun, from its political and ideological tenets to the "smuggling" of suitcases full of cash into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing. Abbas lambasted the government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh for joining the Iranian-Syrian-Hizbullah axis, endangering the vital interests of the Palestinian people, inviting harsh Western-Israeli sanctions, and failing to contain chaos and lawlessness, inclusive of the killing of a number of civilians in Gaza recently. Abbas also indirectly lambasted the capture, nearly five months ago, of an Israeli occupation soldier by Palestinian resistance fighters, saying: "this soldier has so far cost us more than 300 Palestinian lives and thousands of injuries." At the end of his speech, which lasted 90 minutes, Abbas announced that he was going to call for early presidential and legislative elections, saying that he had the constitutional authority to do so, a claim strongly disputed by most legal experts. The Palestinian leader didn't designate a date for the prospective elections, indicating that he was still leaving the door open for the possible formation of a government of national unity. Abbas received a standing ovation by Fatah leaders, many of whom are considered avowed enemies of Hamas and have been for a long time urging and pressuring the PA chairman to dissolve the government and parliament irrespective of any constitutional constraints. A few hours after the speech, Abbas's presidential guard -- reportedly financed, armed and trained by the US -- ganged up on hundreds of pro-Hamas supporters in downtown Ramallah, killing one person and injuring more than 35 others, including seven listed in critical condition. The ferocity of the mayhem underscored the extent of vengefulness and vindictiveness felt by Fatah security personnel towards Hamas, which accused the paramilitary policemen of emulating the Israeli army. The PA blamed Hamas supporters for seeking to hold a rally without receiving an official permit beforehand, with some officers shouting: "this is not Gaza, this is Ramallah!" But the permit excuse was merely pretext, the real motive clearly to send a message to Hamas supporters by giving some of them a good beating, probably in retaliation for the killing of the three sons of a Fatah security officer in Gaza last week, for which Fatah tacitly blamed Hamas, but for which Hamas denied responsibility. Following Abbas's speech, and as Fatah police forces were ganging up on Hamas supporters in Ramallah, Hamas leaders immediately fought back, calling Abbas's speech "provocative" and "inciting violence". "Abbas calls us smugglers. Well, the smugglers and thieves are those who stole hundreds of millions of dollars of our people's money and fled abroad, not the ones who are bringing money to feed our starving children," retorted Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar. "Look what your speech has done in Ramallah," he added. Recriminations and counter-recriminations continued, with Hamas reasserting its claim that former PA Security Chief Mohamed Dahlan was behind the botched assassination attempt on Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as he was returning from his extended foreign tour via the Rafah border crossing Thursday night. One bodyguard of Haniyeh was killed, and Haniyeh's own son moderately wounded in the face. His political adviser Ahmed Youssef lost one of his fingers. On Tuesday evening, 19 December, Haniyeh delivered a speech that contained a point-by-point refutation of Abbas's speech. Hamas, he said, didn't reject the "Saudi initiative", as Abbas claimed in his speech. "All we said was 'let us see if Israel would accept it,' and if it did, then we would follow the Arab consensus, after all we are part of the Arab umma (nation)." Haniyeh also rejected Abbas's charges that Hamas was endangering Palestinian national interests by joining "axes" -- an allusion to Iran. "Well, the Arab and Muslim nations are our strategic depth. Besides, we are not with one party against the other, and we are not in anybody's pocket. So are we supposed to deal with people who open their doors before us, help us and stand with us?" asked Haniyeh. Dismissing Abbas's call for early elections as unconstitutional and illegal, Haniyeh accused the Palestinian president and Fatah of adopting a hostile approach towards the Hamas-led government from its very inception. "They had thought that the government would only survive one or two months and they rejected all our gestures and overtures from day one." It is uncertain whether Abbas's call for early presidential and legislative elections is serious or is just meant to coerce Hamas into giving concessions to Fatah with regard to the formation of a government of national unity. From the legal and constitutional viewpoint, Abbas doesn't have the power to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council, as former Palestinian minister of justice Nahed Al-Rayes and many other constitutional experts have noted. Constitutionality aside, the organisation of early elections would be difficult if not impossible given the level of lawlessness in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Also, were Abbas and Fatah to insist despite Hamas's opposition, elections now would almost certainly lead to the collapse of the fragile ceasefire with Israel, and under such circumstances, no elections could be held. There is also the prospect of a split between Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas has already indicated that it would boycott elections. This might lead -- given that a large number of voters might follow Hamas in this -- to the result of having two governments in Ramallah and Gaza, each claiming to be the true representative of the Palestinian people and both languishing, one way or another, under Israeli occupation. Maybe this is what the Americans mean when they speak of "creative chaos" in the Middle East. Meanwhile, on 18 December, British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Ramallah and spoke almost passionately of the need to resolve the Palestinian issue and defeat the forces of radicalism and terror. But while he and Bush appear enthusiastic about strengthening "moderate" leaders like Abbas, neither the US nor the UK has been able to persuade Israel to remove even a single roadblock in the West Bank. Few took Blair seriously. Palestinians are well versed in empty promises, and understand well Blair's dwindling influence on the Bush administration.
