![]() ![]() The US ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, further undermined public confidence in Mr Abbas this week by describing him as weak and with a tendency "to run away from problems", according to Ha'aretz newspaper.Īn Islamic Jihad cell claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing near Netanya on Monday evening, which the police initially mistook for a gas explosion, in protest at Israel's failure to release more prisoners. Public support is falling and that matters because what they think of Abu Mazen is what they think of the road map." ![]() And what have the Palestinians got in return? They are still locked up in their towns and cities, unable to work or move. Abu Mazen has said the intifada is over, he has brought Hamas and Islamic Jihad into a ceasefire, he is doing everything the Americans want. "From the beginning we have said this process will only work when the Palestinian people have something to show for it. "The Israelis surely understand the importance of the prisoner issue to our public, so we can only think they are playing games with us," he said. Yesterday, officials close to Mr Abbas said he postponed a meeting with Mr Sharon scheduled for today in protest at the failure to release more detainees.Ī senior Palestinian official, who declined to be named, accused the Israeli government of deliberately jeopardising the road map. Hamas and Islamic Jihad made such releases a ceasefire condition. Last week, the Palestinian prime minister - who is more popularly known as Abu Mazen - warned the Israelis that the ceasefire declared by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah could collapse if prisoners are not freed. Mr Abbas wrote to Mr Arafat yesterday asking him to put in writing how Fatah chiefs believe the negotiations should be conducted. The Fatah leadership was also deeply divided about whether to join the ceasefire. Members accused the prime minister of giving too much ground to the Israelis in return for very little and of bowing to every American demand, including White House pressure not to make a public stink over Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's failure to keep to his commitment to dismantle illegal Jewish outposts in the West Bank. Palestinian sources said Mr Abbas faced a barrage of criticism at the central committee meeting of Fatah, which he co-founded with Mr Arafat in 1965. Popular Palestinian anger over one of the most volatile issues facing negotiators was compounded by Israeli minister Avigdor Lieberman, who opposed the releases by saying he would be happy to drown the prisoners in the Dead Sea. The prisoners include more than 1,000 people detained without trial, among them children.Īt the weekend, the Israeli cabinet reluctantly voted to free fewer than 400 people but then set conditions, ruled out the release of members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and said the process would not begin for weeks. The crisis flared at a Fatah central committee meeting on Monday evening after Mr Abbas failed to secure the release of the bulk of 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli hands in return for last week's ceasefire by Fatah, Hamas and other groups. ![]()
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