POLITICS: New Palestinian Cabinet Sworn In

Fatah Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has emerged from a close brush with losing his job. The PM faced heavy resistance for including so few new comers and seven members of Arafat's administration in his first cabinet proposal. The cabinet which finally gained parliamentary approval is characterized by newcomers of technical expertise in their departments. The seven Arafat veterans have been dropped as well. President Mahmoud Abbas calls this "a happy day" for Palestinians.



Hopefully the new blood will mean new ideas and change. Some believe that a change of face and of ideology in the Palestinian Authority is necessary in the wake of Yasser Arafat's death. Hopefully this will represent the beginning of an era where corruption does not stand in the way of peace. Only time will tell of course.

This character Major General Nasser Yousef interests me. As head of security forces in Gaza and the West Bank he supposedly was instrumental in crackdowns on militants and was not very well liked be Arafat (who did not seem very interested with having peace).

Could this guy be Palestine's answer to Israel's move to disarm the settlers? I'd really like to be hopeful about this conflict for a change. If the two sides will put their militant wings in check that would be a tremendous start. So, can and will this guy stop lone nuts from lobbing mortar shells into Israeli towns whenever there is any chance for peace?

Yes, he is intersting. Arafat had always resisted Yousefs appointment.

Ex- general Nasser Yousef, born 1943, is a long-time confidant of Abbas.

He was responsible for a crackdown on Hamas militants in 1997 following a spate of suicide bombs in Israel.

Another interesting person is 44 years old Mohammed Dahlan, who had been head of Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip.

He also has been at the Camp David talks in yaer 2000.

Dahlan speaks fluent Hebrew and holds frequent meetings with Israel, mostly with the security officials.


Rebekka


[edit on 25-2-2005 by Riwka]

Sounds like there are good people on the team - which makes for a good start. Really can't ask for much more (yet).

it's amazing at the strides of peace made so quickly since Arafat's demise. The few Palestinians I have known personally had nothing good to say about the man (when a guy who knows little english, but has quite a few synonyms for the term "gangster") and spoke of him with only fear, loathing and hatred.

Now, we have to hope that the damage done by Arafat, and the bitter cynicism he personally bred in peace-minded leaders in israel, can be mended as well. So much multigenerational distrust and hatred.

Some new blood on the other side would be a good idea.

Obviously now that Arafat is not longer in the picture these people will have more control on decisions that will help the country.

Occurs we know that is still other groups that will no care one way or another who is in charge they are on their own agendas.

But again is nice that they don't have Arafat breathing on their backs anymore.