Analysis / Abbas could not denounce the attack

Last night's announcement by Fatah operatives that the attack on the JVT outpost at the Rafah border was retribution for Israel's poisoning of Yasser Arafat did not receive any serious comment from the Palestinian leadership. The opinion that Arafat was poisoned is pervasive in the Palestinian street, but digging the booby-trapped tunnel that exploded last night began at least three months ago, long before Arafat's death.

No Palestinian expected Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to condemn the attack, as it was carried out in occupied Gaza territory against IDF soldiers. Such attacks are considered legitimate by all Palestinian factions, even though the cease-fire (hudna) talks Abbas held recently with representatives of Hamas discuss the suspension of all military actions until the January 9 PA elections.

Abbas and his fellow members of the Palestinian Authority leadership have trouble saying anything against last night's attack on the military post, in part because Marwan Barghouti's announcement withdrawing his candidacy for chairmanship of the Authority included a call on Abbas to continue the uprising and opposition to occupation.

In an interview for a Gulf-based Arabic television station, a Jericho-area Palestinian farmer - who felt Abbas' election would be good for his business - said that from the perspective of national honor and the struggle for freedom, he would have preferred Barghouti.

Comments like this reach the ears of Abbas and his people, who must now be careful not to appear opposed to the intifada and actions against Israel, as such opposition could cause serious damage to public opinion prior to the elections.

Palestinian pride at yesterday's attack was evident in comments by Fatah operatives in Rafah, who said, "The IDF with its tanks and missiles controls the land and the air, but we control the underground."

Others said the tunnel method has proved itself, and that the earth opens up and swallows the Israeli occupation. The partnership in carrying out the attack between Hamas and Fatah is a clear message to Israel and the PA that the hope for quiet and calm after Arafat's death is nothing but an illusion.

An East Jerusalem journalist said yesterday that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is too deep and complex to be dependent on the personality of a single leader. Even in Arafat's time, it was clear that the central Palestinian leadership couldn't completely control the situation, and that fact is even clearer in the time of his heirs.