Abbas’s Gamble?
Mahmoud Abbas’s tactic of calling early elections is a shrewd political move, for months Fatah and Abbas have been trying to outwit Hamas and now is their chance.
Abbas is presumably calculating that Hamas’ record of poor rule; inability to recognise Israel and receive international funding will dramatically affect Palestinian’s voting, so swinging people around to voting for Fatah/PLO.
Abbas probably thinks that the previous perception of Fatah/PLO as corrupt and ineffective will not worry Palestinians terribly, as long as they get sufficient international aid.
Fatah, etc would most likely argue that in government they alone can bring massive aid to Gaza and the West Bank, and the Palestinians in their current dire situation may consider that more important than any temporary bond that they might have had with Hamas.
Of course, Fatah and the PLO have a terrible record of corruption but there may be a small window for peace if Fatah/PLO beat Hamas, who knows?
3 comments:
I am not sure I understand the source of Abbas's confidence. Anyway, if he succeeds to put Hamas in its place, more power to him.
Arafat, Fatah and the PLO were always bad actors. Arafat was unbelievably corrupt. He was getting cash out of every branch of the Palestinian Authority, including 25% of the Customs revinue. His personal fortune at the time of his death was estimated at between $9 hundred milliom and $6 billion.
What Charles said. Was that tea-leaf Arafat not the 7th most wealthy national leader at the time of his death?
Furthermore, it still puzzles me as to why Haniyeh needed to carry so much cash when, presumably, there was the well endowed PIF just waiting to fund a Palestinian recovery.
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