The new Palestinian government.

It has been interesting to follow the Palestinian building of a new government. It does not have the support neither of the Hamas nor of the Fatah nor of some of the other groups within the Palestinian political landscape.
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is trying to please his own people, the Egyptians and the West all together and does not really succeed in doing so.
The Palestinian people are being torn between Hamas and Fatah as it is these two main groups which control the media. They decide everything concerning “what to say” and “how to say it”. The people do well in supporting whoever is the strongest in their region. Not doing so can be dangerous.
Egypt has had a few issues lately with Iranian supported Hezbollah groups operating within her territory. Everybody knows that Hamas is supported by Iran as well. There is a lot of friction within the Egyptian society but Housni Mubarak still tries to host peace talks between the Palestinians as well as talks on an international level in order to put Egypt on "the map".
The West needs a Palestinian “address” which recognizes Israel, but if it does not have any support among its own people it won’t be of much use.

The new government consists of 24 ministers, including Salaam Fayad, who is both continuing as prime minister and who also is ministering the “money box”. Seven of the ministers served in the previous government. Fayad is known to be a moderate politician with good connections to both Israel and the West.

A few months ago it looked as if the Palestinian government was all Fatah and that the biggest group in opposition was Hamas. The war last summer actually was presented to us as if that was the case. We know that Hamas took completely over the Gaza Strip and that it also has strong support within many towns on the West Bank. The media presented this war as to be “the bad guys fighting the good guys” ( My blog on Jan.20.2009 deals with that issue. )

There is a major crisis going on within the Fatah at the moment. Some seem to be leaning towards Hamas. It is amazing how “scaring people to death” can result in a wish to get closer to the enemy.
During the war last summer lots of Fatah policemen were shot in their legs in order to cripple them. (Seventy of these policemen have come to Israel to receive medical treatment and artificial legs.) This may be understood as a warning to cause people to behave according to Hamas set rules. Fatah claims that Hamas has killed more than 700 of their people since the uprising in 2000. They kill the ones they know will not change....

The new government has yet to be approved by the majority of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Elin Elkouby