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Fatah's New Status Quo Leaders

[Japan Times] Barry Rubin - At the Sixth Fatah Congress, the candidate who came in first, with two-thirds of the vote, was Abd al-Mahir Ghuneim, who is increasingly being spoken of as Abbas' successor. Ghuneim is an unrepentant hardliner and an open opponent of the Oslo agreement, much less of a negotiated peace agreement with Israel. If he becomes Fatah's leader (and hence leader of the PA and the PLO as well), any compromise with Israel would become unimaginable. However, there are several individuals in the new leadership who have many Israeli contacts, and who can pick up a phone and call or be called by their Israeli counterparts. It is also important that most of Fatah's new leaders have a strong distaste for Hamas, which makes rapprochement between the two groups unlikely. This is neither a group that will make peace with Israel nor one that will ally itself with Hamas. It is a group with which Israel can work on status quo issues, though not on a comprehensive agreement.
2009-08-17 06:00:00
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