All eyes on Abbas in West Bank
The Fatah leader has popular support, but faces lawlessness and other challenges.
from the June 22, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
In Nablus, young militants, associated with Fatah, who are known as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, reacted to events in Gaza last week by making reprisal attacks against symbols of Hamas and kidnapping some its members. Whether Abbas will now manage to rein in these renegade factions is unclear. So far, the leaders of the brigades, while loyal to the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), say they are not terribly impressed with Abbas's handling of the crisis in Gaza.
"Had [Abbas] given the order to fight and defend their positions in Gaza, then the outcome of the situation would have been different," says Sari Hussein, a founder and leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus. "His only objective was to stop the bloodshed."
But Abbas's decision to dismiss the unity government suggests a potential turnaround in his image. "When he dissolved the government, that was a very strong message," Mr. Hussein adds. "He's starting to realize that he has to target Hamas. They were taking over here, and we prepared the way for the PA to come back in."
Abbas must try to unify a fractious network of Al Aqsa militia groups that lack a centralized leadership and do not necessarily take orders from anyone but their own individual group leaders.
Formed at the start of the second intifada in September 2000, these mini-militias have tended to be more powerful than any of the PA's security forces.
Hussein, a tall and burly man who dresses in black, is concerned that Abbas, as part of the security reform and consolidation he is pushing for, will demand that militants like him give up their arms. In a speech on Wednesday, the new Palestinian prime minister, Salaam Fayyad, said the PA would no longer tolerate armed militias roving the streets of Palestinian cities.
"Why should put down my weapon?" Hussein asks. "Am I safe? Are the Israelis gone?"
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