Abbas in Limbo: Fatah Descendant - Khaled Amayreh

Al Ahram Weekly, Cairo, January 15-21, 2009 - ....In fact, the Palestinian public's disillusionment with the PA and Fatah has probably reached an all-time high due to a widely held belief that the PA has conspired against Hamas. Suspicions have been reinforced by the heavy-handed suppression of solidarity protests in the West Bank by PA security forces. In Hebron, PA policemen violently suppressed pro-Gaza demonstrations, beating protesters and arresting a number of them. Similarly, PA security personnel prevented protesters from raising Hamas's green Islamic banners and suppressed those shouting pro-Hamas slogans.

Indeed, contrary to what had been expected, PA reactions to the carnage in Gaza have been minimal and nearly all symbolic. Some Palestinian writers have pointed out that distant and even non-Arab countries adopted stances far more principled than those taken by the PA. One Fatah official intimated to Al-Ahram Weekly that the increasingly disharmonious group was finding itself between the hammer of Palestinian public opinion and the anvil of cool political calculations.....