The Normalization of Fatah

The world cannot save Fatah only Fatah can save itself.

Fatah s Status Quo Congress

Hamas, Fatah, and the Palestinian Dilemma

Hamas and Fatah at the Crossroads

Yet Fatah was hardly going to give up.

Initially, 11 websites affiliated with ex Fatah leader Mahmoud Dahlan and Fatah's political rival, Hamas were blocked.

There is another scenario that also terrifies Fatah leaders.

Instead, conflict broke out between Hamas and Fatah, leading to Fatah s collapse and desperate flight from Gaza.

Apart from a few scattered speeches some by Abbas himself it never accepted peace and compromise.

Now, not even Fatah, Arafat s own party, can claim to be a coherent organization.

First, Arafat s legacy left Fatah and the PLO completely undisciplined.

Many of the newly elected members, moreover, are veteran Fatah bureaucrats.

Second, Fatah never gave Palestinians any alternative vision.

But Rajoub has many enemies, and Dahlan was responsible for Fatah s humiliating defeat by Hamas in the fight that led to the expulsion of Fatah from Gaza.

The shifting age and geographic location of the Fatah membership was the reason for the failure of some of Fatah s historic leaders, such as Ahmad Qureia and Intisar Wazir, the widow of the late Abu Jihad.

But Fatah is almost as extreme as Hamas.

Instead, they will have to focus on rebuilding and reenergizing Fatah.

The original July 17 election date had put Fatah in a difficult position.

Even after the defeat, Fatah implemented not a single reform or leadership change.

Months later, Jabhat Fath al Sham, tried to rebrand itself once again.

As for democracy, while the Congress was certainly a step forward from the past (when Fatah leader Yasir Arafat could handpick Fatah s leadership), real limits remain.

Bolstered by the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994, Fatah s popularity among Palestinians has drained away over the past decade, sapped by charges of corruption and incompetence, as well as by the eruption of the second intifada in late 2000.

Fatah, which runs the West Bank, wants no part of another Palestinian uprising.

Israel doesn t become safer, nor do Hamas or Fatah become more popular.

Signs that Fatah is moving towards becoming a normal political party were ample.

Fatah prefers a system of voting where population size determines the scope of parliamentary representation.

Arab outsiders should also press Hamas and Fatah to come together.

The younger generation of indigenous West Bank Palestinians, whose leaders began political activity in the uprising of the late 1970's, embraces amilitant strategy that views the hardliners as burned out old fogies, enervated by corruption. Unlike the hard line secularists, the militants, whose best known leader is Marwan Barghuti, the head of the Tanzim grassroots grouping in Fatah, are willing to work with the Islamists.

Fayyad has also gained the backing of Fatah and most other Palestinian groups in the West Bank.

Can Hamas and Fatah put aside their differences and form a unity government?

So once Arafat died, the roof caved in on Fatah.

For their part, Fatah officials seem unwilling to join a Hamas led government.

The Fatah movement has a long way to go before it becomes a full fledged political party.

In a near parody of external interventions, the US and Israel encouraged President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah to dismiss the Hamas led government, and to declare a new Fatah led government in the West Bank.

Bolstered by the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1994, Fatah s popularity among Palestinians has drained away over the past decade, sapped by charges of corruption and incompetence, as well as by the eruption of the second intifada in late 2000.

If Fatah refuses to join a coalition, Hamas may opt for a government of independents and technocrats.

But Fatah has its own view of what is logical one that might not coincide with such prescriptions.

Yet the peace process has been stalled for more than a year, greatly reducing Fatah s credibility in the West Bank.

Hamas s crushing defeat of Fatah in this week s elections brings the Palestinian people to a crossroads.

While some (such as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak) took the resistance rhetoric of some delegates seriously, Fatah spokesman Nabil Amr officially assured all concerned that Fatah is committed to peaceful resolution of the Palestinian Israeli conflict.

But the fear that is most consuming Abbas and Fatah is that the conflict with Hamas might spread to the West Bank.

With Hamas allied to Iran and Syria, Fatah has seemed more attractive in geopolitical terms.

Barghouti advocated and was trying to implement internal Fatah elections when the Israelis arrested him. As a street leader who was elected as the head of the Bir Zeit University student council, he gained legitimacy by being chosen by his peers.

Under weak leadership, Fatah did nothing to address its deep seated divisions and corruption.