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Abbas steps down deals big blow { September 7 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/international/07MIDE.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/international/07MIDE.html
September 7, 2003
Abbas Steps Down, Dealing Big Blow to U.S. Peace Plan
By JAMES BENNET
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Sept. 6 — Mahmoud Abbas submitted his resignation as Palestinian prime minister today, and Israel tried to kill the spiritual leader and founder of Hamas with an airstrike in Gaza City, as the Bush administration's drive for Middle East peace appeared in danger of disintegrating.
Some associates of Mr. Abbas held out the hope that, by provoking what Palestinian politicians called a dire crisis within the leadership, he would revive a peace plan that they said was all but dead already.
Similarly, Israeli officials, saying they had struck at the "head of the snake" by attacking the Hamas leader, argued that eliminating Hamas was necessary to pursue peace in the Middle East.
But both developments seemed to present the chance of moving the adversaries toward spiraling violence.
"It seems that we are entering a crisis," Qadoura Fares, a Palestinian legislator, said after Mr. Abbas resigned, but before the airstrike. "And it seems that the price of this crisis will be a lot of blood."
The attack on the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in which 15 people, including children, were wounded, prompted vows of retaliation from Hamas. Israel, which used a 550-pound bomb dropped from a warplane, said it was striking not only at Sheik Yassin but also at Hamas terrorists meeting with him.
A senior Israeli security official said the attack failed because the air force used a "relatively small bomb" to minimize civilian casualties.
Already under severe threat from Israel, Hamas came under new pressure from Europe today. European Union foreign ministers denounced the group's political wing as a terrorist organization, opening the way for Europe to freeze the group's assets.
President Bush had embraced Mr. Abbas, 68, as an alternative leader to Yasir Arafat, one who was willing and able to champion the new peace plan, called the road map. But in the eyes of most Palestinian politicians and analysts, Mr. Arafat emerged from the struggle strengthened, at least temporarily, with a public that, before Mr. Abbas's elevation, had shown signs of wearying of him.
Mr. Arafat, 74, the president of the governing Palestinian Authority, accepted Mr. Abbas's resignation, two Palestinian ministers said. Yet some Palestinian and Israeli officials said the crisis might force Mr. Arafat to reappoint Mr. Abbas with more authority, to keep the peace effort alive.
"I hope the climax of the crisis will pave the way for new ground rules of understanding between the president and the prime minister," said Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian minister and political scientist. He and other Palestinian officials said that if Mr. Abbas, a longtime leader of Mr. Arafat's Fatah faction, was unable to effectively fill the post of prime minister, no one else would be able to do so, either.
Speaking to reporters at a conference in Italy, Tom Ridge, the American secretary for domestic security, said the resignation would not deter Mr. Bush. "There was great promise there, great hope there, but he was consistently being undermined by elements within the Palestinian Authority," Mr. Ridge said of Mr. Abbas.
Should the resignation become final, Mr. Abbas would serve as head of a caretaker government while Mr. Arafat picked a successor. By law, Mr. Arafat has about two weeks to do so. Under pressure from the United States, the United Nations and Arab states, Mr. Arafat reluctantly appointed Mr. Abbas this spring.
White House officials said today that it had become clear within the last few weeks that Mr. Abbas would not survive as prime minister, a situation which led Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to call on Mr. Arafat for help in quelling violence after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last month that killed 22 Israelis. The Bush administration must wait to see if the Palestinians turn to someone new or continue to support Mr. Arafat.
In a closed-door session here today with Palestinian legislators, Mr. Abbas, who was described as worn out and sad, blamed Israel, the Bush administration and Mr. Arafat for undermining his government and his efforts for peace.
In a statement, as before the legislators, he lay the blame primarily with Israel, saying, "The fundamental problem was Israel's unwillingness to implement its commitments in the road map." He said Washington had not pressed Israel enough.
But, in a clear swipe at Mr. Arafat and the rest of the Palestinian leadership, he also complained about a "lack of support" for his government and "harsh and dangerous domestic incitement against the government." On Thursday, when Mr. Abbas presented a summary to legislators of his first months in office, masked men spray-painted the walls outside with slogans denouncing his government, and dozens of protesters chanted against him.
Mr. Fares, the legislator, said the incident left Mr. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, "with a big scar."
Right-wing Israeli ministers seized on Mr. Abbas's resignation as evidence that Mr. Arafat was obstructing the peace effort and should be deported. In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the tumult an internal Palestinian matter, but added that "Israel will not accept a situation where the control of the Palestinian Authority will revert back to Arafat or anyone acting on his behalf."
The senior Israeli security official said if Mr. Arafat did not reverse course and empower Mr. Abbas, "Arafat's personal destiny might change." He said Mr. Arafat might also feel pressure to bring him back because of "the understanding that many Palestinians share that if Abu Mazen resigns it might be the end of the road map."
It was shortly after Israel issued its statement that a bomb struck the Gaza City apartment building where Sheik Yassin, a paraplegic, was meeting with other Hamas leaders. Sheik Yassin was lightly wounded by shrapnel in his right hand.
In response, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, another leader of the group, said, "Our operations will strike everywhere. There is no sanctity to a house, to a street, to a car, nor to a politician, when it comes to an attack on a leader like Sheik Yassin."
The centerpiece of Mr. Abbas's government was a temporary suspension of attacks on Israelis negotiated among his own Fatah faction and Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Declared on June 29, that cease-fire eventually frayed as Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they would make exceptions by retaliating for Israel's continuing raids into Palestinian areas in pursuit of weapons and terrorism suspects. Israel said it could not refrain from such raids as long as Mr. Abbas would not pre-emptively act to break apart militant groups.
On Aug. 19, a Hamas suicide bomber killed 22 people aboard a Jerusalem bus. Two days later, Israel began its new campaign to kill leaders and members of Hamas, and it again closed most of the handful of checkpoints it had relaxed during the weeks of relative calm.
As the cease-fire and peace effort broke down, Mr. Abbas was left with little to point to as a success of his brief tenure. Eighteen Palestinian legislators moved on Thursday for a vote of no confidence to be taken in his government. Mr. Abbas may have survived that vote, Palestinian politicians said today, but it was not a sure thing.
While a year ago Palestinians voiced increasing frustration with Mr. Arafat's management of the Palestinian Authority, that anger has now shifted to Mr. Abbas, said Dr. Khalil Shikaki, a noted Palestinian political scientist.
"This is a dramatic recovery for Arafat," Dr. Shikaki said. "At the moment, Arafat essentially owns the battle over the hearts and minds."
Mr. Bush had made Mr. Abbas's appointment a condition for proceeding with the peace plan. But the American and Israeli embrace of Mr. Abbas at Mr. Arafat's expense made him suspect among Palestinians as he made concession in the peace talks.
"Abu Mazen had to make the unpopular decisions, while Arafat, who was still in prison himself, was able to look like an angel" to the public, Dr. Shikaki said.
After the suicide bombing on Aug. 19, Mr. Abbas wanted to take some action against Hamas, like closing weapons factories, his associates said. But Mr. Arafat resisted any such action, arguing that it would only lead to civil conflict and that Mr. Sharon would make no substantive concessions in return.
Several supporters of Mr. Abbas accused Israel today of causing the prime minister to fail by not halting the military raids or the growth of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Yasir Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian minister, said, "Sharon is not interested in a Palestinian moderate government headed by Abu Mazen."
Asked why, then, the Palestinians had supplied the internal crisis they believed that Israel wanted, Mr. Abed Rabbo replied with a wry smile, "We are excellent — we are professional — in doing this."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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