Middle East Economic Survey
VOL. LII
No 33
Political Comment (17 August 2009)
Fatah's first party congress in 20 years has elected a younger Central Committee. Israel has warned Lebanon that it will be held responsible for any attacks by Hizbollah and is refusing to resume indirect talks with Syria via Turkey. In Yemen, clashes have taken place with Shi'a rebels in the north of the country.
Fatah Holds Party Congress
The first congress in 20 years of Palestinian President Mahmud 'Abbas's Fatah party, which opened in Bethlehem on 4 August, was generally seen as a defeat for the old guard ‒ contemporaries of Fatah's founder Yasir 'Arafat - whose corruption and cronyism led to Hamas's victory in the elections in Gaza in 2006. After endorsing Mr 'Abbas as party leader on 8 August and passing a motion on 9 August declaring that "despite our commitment to the option of a just peace and our efforts to accomplish it, we will not drop any options and we believe resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right of occupied peoples in confronting their occupiers," the congress then elected 19 members of the party's 23-strong decision making Central Committee, 14 of them new and younger candidates. (At MEES press time the votes in the simultaneous election of 80 members of the party's 128-strong parliament, the Revolutionary Council, were still being counted.) Whether this will be enough to restore Fatah's electoral fortunes - and what impact that might have on relations between Fatah and Hamas and the peace process ‒ will only become clear after the Palestinian parliamentary and presidential elections which are to take place on an as yet unspecified date next year.
Netanyahu Threatens Lebanon, Calls Off Indirect Talks With Syria
As Lebanese prime minister designate Sa'd al-Hariri attempts to put together a representative coalition to form a unity government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to discourage him from including Hizbollah by warning that the Lebanese government will be held accountable for any attack on Israel by the Islamist group. Speaking on 10 August, Mr Netanyahu said that "if Hizbollah joins the Lebanese government as an official entity, let it be clear that the Lebanese government, as far as we are concerned, is responsible for any attack ‒ any attack ‒ from its area on the state of Israel. It cannot hide and say: 'It's Hizbollah, we don't control them.'"
In what might be seen as a second preemptive strike against pressure to negotiate with Syria ‒ he has already indicated that Israel intends to keep most of Golan ‒ Mr Netanyahu has also decided not to resume the indirect talks with Syria in Turkey which took place under his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. In an interview with Reuters on 12 August, deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon ‒ who, like Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is a member of the extreme right party Yisrael Beitenu ‒ said that "we have enormous respect and great appreciation for the Turkish efforts. But they have not succeeded ‒ not because of the Turks. It's because of Syrian intransigence." Asked if this meant that Mr Netanyahu was ruling out a resumption of the talks via Turkey, Mr Ayalon replied: "Correct. We have just benefited from the experience that shows proximity talks did not work. If they are really serious on peace, and not just a peace process which may serve them to extricate them from international isolation, if they are really serious, they will come and sit with us."
Yemen Strikes At Shi'a Rebels
Yemeni President 'Ali 'Abd Allah Salih has ended a one-year cease fire and sent Yemeni forces to attack Shi'a rebels in Saada province in the north of the country. The official news agency Saba quoted the president as saying on 10 August that "continued violations by rebels and acts of sabotage prove their refusal to adhere to the peace option announced by the government a year ago," and the next day government forces attacked the headquarters of rebel leader 'Abd al-Malik al-Huthi. According to the government's Supreme Security Committee, "the state will strike these elements…with an iron fist until they surrender themselves to justice."
Charles Snow