Word: fatah
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...those involved in such strikes - reacted energetically. The Palestinian police arrested two people in the West Bank; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his forces to find out which group was behind it; and Palestinian security officials confirmed that the bomber, Abdullah Badran, was a member of Abbas?s own Fatah faction of the P.L.O. But Fatah?s Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia denied involvement, as did Hamas. Suspicion fell on Hizballah, the Lebanese fundamentalist group, but on Saturday Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Palestinian observers say Islamic Jihad - which like Hizballah gets backing from Iran - may have been pressured by the Lebanese...
...whether he can persuade Sharon to make compromises of his own, like releasing long-serving prisoners who murdered Israelis. It's telling that while Israeli officials praised Abbas for sticking to the agenda at Sharm el-Sheikh--in contrast to Arafat's diversionary tactics--Abbas told a senior Fatah official that he found Sharon too rigid. "We are different personalities," he said. "I can't be a block...
...someone often derided for his passivity, Abbas, 69, has also been willing to mix it up. Born in Safed, a town now part of Israel, he grew up in Damascus after his family fled when the Jewish state was founded in 1948. As a young member of Fatah, Arafat's faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.), he made his name as a fund raiser while avoiding involvement in the group's terrorist attacks. He was among the first Fatah leaders to build bridges to Israeli peace campaigners and in 1977 issued a declaration in favor of a two-state...
...Mahmoud Abbas owes his presidency in no small part to the backing of the al-Aqsa Martyr?s Brigade, who facilitated his election by persuading the more popular imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to withdraw from the race. (The most authoritative Palestinian polls suggest Barghouti would have beaten Abbas by four percentage points.) Many of their grassroots members are also the rank-and-file of Abbas?s uniformed Palestinian security services, on whom he would have to rely in any crackdown. Hamas, meanwhile, has moved into the mainstream of Palestinian politics, and in recent municipal elections in Gaza its candidates...
...Some Fatah officials are wondering why Egypt is suddenly taking such an interest in Palestinian affairs. The reason, many speculate, may have less to do with optimism over Abbas' recent election than with growing pressure for Cairo to make sweeping changes in its authoritarian rule. In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush expressed hope that Egypt, having shown "the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East." That repeated, almost word for word, a line Bush used in a 2003 speech. As Bush's speechwriters...