Palestinian rifts 'not yet crisis'

By Barbara Plett BBC correspondent in Jerusalem

Disputes that have emerged within the Palestinian leadership reflect both discontent with the performance of the Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and a power struggle inside Yasser Arafat's nationalist Fatah movement.

Mr Abbas - also known as Abu Mazen - heads the Palestinian Authority cabinet, a nominally independent body but actually dominated by Fatah.

Analysts say Yasser Arafat is trying to show he is still relevant

Historically it has been the Fatah Central Council that has had the final say in talks with Israel.

In a fit of pique, Mr Abbas quit the Council earlier this week and threatened to resign as prime minister unless the movement endorsed his handling of contacts with Israel.

He had come under heavy criticism for failing to get any significant response from Israel in exchange for a unilateral Palestinian ceasefire declared on 29 June.

In particular Fatah officials, like most Palestinians, were incensed that Israel had refused a broad prisoner release, one of the key conditions for maintaining the truce.

The Israeli offer of 350 men, most near the end of their sentences and none of them prominent activists, fell far short of the demand that some 6,000 be set free, including members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movements.

Abu Mazen is seen as the key to US engagement with the conflict

Fatah officials also criticised limited redeployments of the Israeli army in Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip, saying they had left many of the Israeli checkpoints in place and had not much improved Palestinian lives.

These are crucial issues because Abu Mazen's performance reflects on Fatah.

The prime minister is one of the old guard of the nationalist movement. If he fails to deliver, Fatah would also be discredited and its leadership on the street further challenged by the rising popularity of the Islamic factions.

Hence the sharp criticism from members of the Fatah Central Council that Mr Abbas was failing to co-ordinate with them and bypassing them in making decisions.

Not yet a crisis

At the moment many Palestinians see the dispute as an internal power play, given that the moody Abu Mazen has a reputation of threatening resignation.

Mr Arafat has also expressed criticism at Abu Mazen's negotiating performance. But few Palestinian analysts accept the Israeli charge that he is actively undermining his prime minister.

Rather, they say, he is using the spat to demonstrate his indispensability by mediating between Fatah and Mr Abbas, telling the prime minister that he cannot afford to sideline Fatah, but continuing to refuse his resignation, mindful that Mr Abbas is the key to US engagement.

The quarrel would become a crisis if the prime minister did insist on resigning, because the US has predicated its involvement in the peace process on a "new and different Palestinian leadership".

What the dispute does show is the fundamental contradiction of Abu Mazen's position. His greatest strength is that he is the preferred candidate of Israel, the US and the group of international mediators known as the Quartet.

His greatest weakness is that he has little popular support among Palestinians, especially when compared to Mr Arafat.

In Palestinian eyes, that contradiction is likely to grow if the diplomatic strategy he has endorsed fails to relax and ultimately end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.