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First Fatah, Then Hamas - Amos Harel
(Ha'aretz) Fatah is posing the biggest challenge to the PA. In the territories, primarily in Samaria, there are some 10-20 cells that do not heed PA directives. Dahlan and his people are in contact with the leaders in an attempt to harness them to the truce. Some of them are opposed to the truce, particularly because of the money they receive from Iran and Hizballah. On Monday, Channel 10 interviewed Zakariye Zweidi, one of the heads of the Tanzim's Shuhada al-Aqsa cell in Jenin. Zweidi expressed open contempt for Dahlan's people: "We will shoot anyone who tries to come in here," he promised. "Yasser Arafat is my commander, and I fulfill his directives. His mouth may speak of a hudna, but his eyes tell me the opposite," he said. According to Col. (res.) Shalom Harari, a top specialist on Palestinian affairs, the PLO had lost its status as the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinians. Hamas has turned itself into an equal-footing competitor of the PA. In a sign of cooperation, Taufik Tirawi's men arrested two terrorists from Bethlehem who were planning a suicide bombing in Jerusalem (and transferred them, in coordination with Israel, to the Palestinian prison in Jericho).