Word: fatah
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...Even collectively, however, Arafat's 12 security services have not enjoyed the monopoly of force in Palestinian territories. Each of the major Palestinian political parties - Fatah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad - has maintained its own armed militias, and it is these forces that have waged the current intifada. And in the case of those aligned with his own political party - Fatah's Tanzim - Arafat has actually encouraged this development...
...staff the top tier of the PA. But in the course of their 1987-1991 intifada, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had evolved a strong local leadership, and many of these younger men were resentful at being overlooked in favor of the Tunisians. The grassroots Fatah leaders are generally more militant than those around Arafat, fiercely critical of the corruption and authoritarianism that became the hallmark of his administration, and impatient with Arafat's strategy of negotiations which they see as doing little to end the occupation. Arafat's reaction to their challenge, however, was to attempt...
...fundamental question of PA reform, therefore, is not whether or not Arafat occupies the presidency, but what the extent of his powers will be. On that front he faces a concerted challenge from within the ranks of his own party, Fatah, which is not only proposing far-reaching changes to end the corruption and cronyism around Arafat but also working to ensure that the Palestinian executive branch is held more accountable to its elected legislature - all of which will diminish Arafat's personal power. While that may please many of the Israeli and Western leaders frustrated in their dealings with...
...promise of reform may depend on the outcome of the fierce power struggles already under way in his domain. The increasingly open split between West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub and his Gaza counterpart Mohammed Dahlan is threatening to spark a wave of internecine violence, while the grassroots Fatah leadership is being emboldened by Arafat's talk of reform to press ahead in its challenge to the PLO old guard that dominates the PA leadership...
...themselves lucky. Captured fighters later told Israeli interrogators they had expected an air strike. The Israelis had repeatedly bombed police barracks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; they didn't seem eager to risk the casualties of house-to-house combat. Ata Abu Roumeileh, a leader of the Fatah gunmen in the camp, now in hiding, told TIME that it was only when his forces saw the Israelis advancing on foot that they decided to stay and fight...