MIDDLE EAST: Divisions within the ruling Fatah group and increased hostage-taking by its dissidents are adding to West Bank and Gaza instability, writes Michael Jansen
The severity of the Palestinian Authority's weakness has been exposed this past week by developments on both the political and security fronts.
This weakness stems from the failure of President Mahmoud Abbas to assert his personal control over the ruling Fatah movement and over the authority's police and intelligence apparatus.
Unable to agree on a single list of candidates for the January 25th parliamentary election, Fatah split into two factions which submitted separate slates to the election commission in mid-December.
But on Monday, "old guard" associates of the late Yasser Arafat and "young guard" activists agreed to amalgamate their lists so Fatah could compete effectively with Islamic Hamas - which expects to win 40 seats in the 132-member legislature.
Polls indicated that the old guard would secure 17 seats and the young guard 27, while a reunified Fatah would take 59.
On Wednesday, the new slate was submitted - but not published, because the leadership was not certain how the public would react to the compromise.
The list is headed by two leading young guard figures, Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life-terms in an Israeli jail, and Muhammad Abu Ali, another life prisoner.
The next two places were filled by the old guard personalities Intisar Wazir (widow of Abu Jihad, a founder of Fatah), and deputy premier Nabil Shaath. Both are deeply unpopular with the younger generation.
When these names were leaked before registration, young guard militants stormed election offices in both the West Bank and Gaza to protest lowly positions assigned to local leaders who did well in party primaries.
The crisis escalated when Israel began enforcing with bombardments a "no-go zone" in the area of northern Gaza evacuated by Israel three months ago.
Israel said it was taking such action to counter rocket attacks mounted on its southern towns by Islamic Jihad, a group over which the authority has no influence and which the police cannot tackle because Jihad fighters outgun the security services.
Yesterday, a Jihad bomber killed himself, an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians at a checkpoint in the West Bank, ensuring a new round of Israeli retaliation.
Jihad rejects the unilateral ceasefire agreed between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which observed the truce for most of 2005. But Hamas has said it will no longer apply in the new year.
Also on Wednesday, armed men from a Fatah-offshoot called the Black Panthers seized British humanitarian worker Kate Burton (24) and her parents in southern Gaza. The kidnapping occurred as Ms Burton showed the gunmen around the town of Rafah. Palestinian security forces are negotiating with the hostage-takers in a bid to end the abduction quickly.
This was the second kidnapping in a week. The latest victims were the Dutch principal and Australian deputy of a school in northern Gaza.
More than a dozen foreign journalists and aid workers have been abducted in Gaza this year, most by dissident members of Fatah demanding freedom for relatives detained by the authority.
It could just be a matter of time before hostages are seized by groups with political agendas as in Iraq.
This would deliver a fatal blow to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.