The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority is allegedly headed for a major shakeup next week; Prime Minister Salam Fayyad may be tasked with forming a new government.
Fatah parliament speaker Azzam Al-Ahmad told the Bethelehem-based Ma'an news agency on Tuesday that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is conducting talks with all of the PA factions in Judea and Samaria to discuss the structure of the new government.
However, although Abbas is setting up the structure of the new government, it is Fayyad, or possibly “another politician” that will be tasked with forming a new coalition, according to Al-Ahmad.
He added that regardless of who becomes prime minister or what the composition of the new government will be, it will “remain affiliated to Fatah” and “strictly follow Fatah party policies.”
New PA government elections were originally scheduled for January, but were postponed by Abbas, who rescheduled the polls for early June, and then reportedly deferred them indefinitely. Likewise the current government shakeup, which was first considered in February, according to media reports, and then again proposed by Fayyad in April just before the launch of indirect talks with Israel.
Fayyad: Future Leader or Victim?
Fayyad, who majored in economics during his university years in the United States, also worked for the World Bank and has built a network of contacts that has served him well in the global arena.
He was hand-picked by the Bush administration to build the PA government's economic and administrative infrastructure in hopes of preparing it to accept the responsibility of national leadership, should a final status agreement be inked with Israel.
However, Fayyad is not a member of Fatah – in fact, he is an independent, and not necessarily subject to the whims of the “old guard” that surrounds Abbas and his cronies, a status that might eventually cost him his life.
According to a senior PA intelligence agent recently quoted by Arab activist and writer Fadi Elsalameen, there are elements in both Fatah and the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization that are quietly plotting to kill the PA prime minister.
The agent, identified only as “J,” explained to Elsalameen, “Fatah wants the Ministry of Finance, and Fayyad refuses and threatens to resign every time they bring this up. No one has loyalty to him.”
The writer, who runs the PalestineNote.com web site, observed, “The fact that Fatah and Hamas could disagree on every national agenda item, but agree on the elimination of Fayyad, is sinister and telling. If Palestine is to be established as a legitimate state, dirty backroom dealings to squeeze out an inflexible political element must come to an end.”