Word: aqsa
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...More importantly, Abbas ran as the consensus candidate of a Fatah movement whose membership ranges from aging diplomatically-inclined men like Abbas to the militants of the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, which continued to launch attacks on Israeli targets even as it campaigned for a leader who dismisses such attacks as futile and counter-productive...
...getting elected may be the easy part. As President, Abbas will have to begin dismantling the pillars of Arafat's regime if he hopes to persuade Israel to return to the negotiating table. His first task is to disarm the gunmen of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Arafat-backed group that has ruled over Palestinian towns like gangsters. Senior Martyrs Brigades officials tell TIME that Abbas has offered to buy back their weapons to avoid a confrontation. But the militants have shown little sign of moderation. "We were the warlords under Arafat," says a Brigades leader in Ramallah...
...confused than he thought, dirtied by the corruption of people at the top. In the end, the only solution he can find is to kill one of his compatriots. Meanwhile, for the first time anywhere in an independent source, I detail the way Arafat funded the gunmen of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades while failing to pay the salaries of his own police force...
...from bank accounts and businesses spread across the world, often held in others' names. A senior Palestinian intelligence official says Arafat had a stake in a Hebron furniture company and a Syrian sewing factory. Senior Palestinian security officials tell TIME that Arafat shipped money to the gunmen of the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The most conspicuous recipient of Arafat's largesse was Suha. People familiar with Arafat's finances say the Palestinian leader sent Suha $200,000 a month out of the Palestinian Authority's budget for the Office of the President. French authorities are investigating transfers of $11.5 million from...
...relentless bloodletting. There is, quite simply, no peace process to speak of right now, and the clock may have been turned back 15 years. Palestinian institutions have largely collapsed, and real power on the streets of places such as Gaza is contest of wills between Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyr's brigade, on the one hand, and the Israeli Defense Force on the other. The Palestinians know they have been atrociously led by Arafat, but that doesn't make them any more forgiving of Israel and the U.S. Their despair is at an all-time high, meaning that...