Palestinian Government Stalls

After just days on the job, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei has reportedly told President Yasser Arafat that he would like to quit.

As hopes of building a Palestinian government grew slimmer Thursday, another suicide bomber attacked Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The bomber killed himself and injured two soldiers and a Palestinian at a checkpoint in Tulkarm.

Hours later, two Palestinians were killed and 15 wounded as Israeli tanks pushed into the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said. Intense shooting broke out early today in what the Israeli army said was a raid to destroy smugglers’ tunnels between Egypt and Gaza.

Korei was supposed to present his emergency Cabinet to parliament for formal approval Thursday, but he ended up calling off the ceremony after clashing backstage with Arafat over control of the Palestinian security forces -- a continuing power struggle in Palestinian attempts to forge a government.

Diplomats and journalists who packed Arafat’s sweltering compound to greet the new officials were told to go home. Neither Arafat nor Korei showed his face.

“Everyone has his own script, and so we feel we need more time,” Palestinian lawmaker Ibrahim Abu Naja told the gathering. “We are sorry for troubling you.”

The most optimistic Palestinians -- or those too proud to shed light on the internal fissures -- called Thursday’s meltdown a raucous eruption of unfamiliar democracy. Others were more blunt. Hanan Ashrawi, an independent Palestinian legislator, said Palestinians had become mired in a constitutional crisis.

“This is very dangerous,” Ashrawi said, walking briskly from the compound. “It’s one thing when we are attacked from the outside, but now we are fighting with ourselves.”

Palestinians don’t have much time to waste. They need a functioning prime minister and Cabinet in order to satisfy international mediators who are urging them and the Israelis to resume negotiations on the so-called “road map” plan for Israeli security and Palestinian statehood. Now that peace talks have petered out and bloodshed is continuing, formation of a Palestinian government is urgent.

But Korei quickly became enmeshed in infighting, and managed to seat a Cabinet only after Arafat declared a state of emergency Sunday. Even then, just eight ministers were named -- two of whom skipped their inaugurations.

Two days after it was sworn in, the skeleton government appeared perilously close to collapse, and ministers were unable to say whether or not they were part of a Cabinet.

The only steady leader has been the ailing Arafat, who is a pariah to the Israelis, who have threatened to exile him. Arafat’s midsection has been visibly bloated beneath his trademark fatigues in recent days, and his face is gaunt and pale.

Aides have dismissed his unmistakable physical deterioration as symptoms of flu or bleeding ulcers, but rumors -- and contradictory news reports -- insist that Arafat is sicker than the Palestinian leadership wants to say.

On Thursday, Time.com, the online edition of Time magazine, reported that a source inside Arafat’s compound said doctors’ “working diagnosis” for the Palestinian leader was stomach cancer.

Meanwhile, war was being waged in Tulkarm by a Palestinian teenager who carried out the suicide attack. The bomber strolled up to a bulletproof reception window and blew himself up, injuring the Israeli soldiers and the Palestinian civilian.

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militant offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah party, claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the bomber as Ahmed Safadi, an 18-year-old vocational student from Nablus. He killed himself outside an office set up to receive Palestinians seeking permission to cross checkpoints, the Israeli army said.

After the explosion, closures choking off the Palestinian territories from Israel cinched even tighter. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered an emergency call-up of 1,000 reservists to patrol the West Bank and Gaza, and the army has been canceling scheduled leaves and training.

For the Palestinians, who pay in road closures, job losses and sporadic bloodshed every time another of their militants targets Israel, taming the violence is crucial. The United States and Israel want Palestinian security forces to launch a sincere campaign to disarm the Palestinians behind the terrorist attacks -- a condition of the peace talks.

But it is precisely the question of security that continues to tangle Korei’s fledgling government. The current standoff between Arafat and the premier is reminiscent of the dilemmas faced by Korei’s ill-fated predecessor, the U.S.-backed Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned after only four months in office.

Like Abbas, Korei has been unable to agree with Arafat about who should oversee the Palestinian forces -- and how much autonomy the security chief should enjoy. Arafat has traditionally regarded the troops as his pet project and has refused to give up control.

It came as little surprise that Abbas, who was imposed upon Arafat under international pressure, clashed with the autocratic president.

But Korei is another story. The Fatah stalwart was handpicked by Arafat, his longtime friend, specifically because he was expected to cooperate. His Cabinet was rich with Arafat allies. His interior minister, Nasser Yousef, who was to handle the security services, is another Arafat loyalist. But Arafat has tried to undermine Yousef’s powers, angering Yousef and prompting him to boycott his swearing-in.

Despite the strife, Korei was expected to try once again to present his Cabinet to parliament later in the week.

“This is a serious situation, it is not easy,” said Saeb Erekat, a minister in the new Cabinet. “What you witnessed here today is history. This is Palestinian democracy.”