Yasser Arafat, when he headed Fatah and the PLO ruled with iron fists and made sure that he and he alone is in charge. Arafat knew that “money” is weakness of all PLO and Fatah cadre whether high ranking or small time operatives. That is why he made sure he and he alone was the one who control the purse and makes all the decisions and was the one who solely dispensed money to every one and to every department. Since all were depending on Arafat for every thing in their lives from owning a home, sea front house, or Mercedes Benz or $50,000 a year university expense, or a gift for a wife or a girl friend or a commission on contract, they all came to Arafat asking and seeking his blessing and favors.  He used this well, making sure no one dares to challenge him and those who did end up either dead or discredited. Arafat ruled Fatah and the PLO just like a Mafia Don but without the benefit of a family council. He always collects.

Combining money, crude power and threats Arafat made sure he and he alone is the decision maker on all internal and external issues. Members had no say so and they followed orders other wise they will be out on the streets.

These days, there is an open and public fight between and among the different factions of Fatah. The young and the old are fighting not to shape Fatah and to reform it but to split the pie and the goods. The fight between the Dahlan, Balaawi, Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim, Farouk Qaddoumi, Ahmed Qurai, Saeb, Yasser Abed Rabou and the others have nothing to do with the interests of the membership let alone the people, but who will benefit the most from the lucrative contract that the Palestinian Troika of Arafat, Abbas and Qurai signed with Israel in 1993 under Oslo.

While jobs, positions and powers are at stake, the biggest stake in the fight is the hundreds of millions that will go to the leadership from the billions pledged by the Western countries under Oslo.  While Arafat was alive he kept every one in check and he dispensed favor and money to silence some, to accommodate others and of course to control every one, making sure him and him alone is in charge.

Abbas does not have the same power or presence like Arafat and he is having a tough time managing the different factions within Fatah and the PLO. Unlike Arafat he does not have the skills to play one faction against the other and unlike Arafat, no one fear him and no one expect him to put a “contract” on them. Thus the fight has been going on since Arafat death. This internal fight is of course at the expense of the more than 4.5 millions of Palestinians under Israeli Occupation. Forget about the Diaspora.

For the last 15 years every one has been talking about reforms. Even the late dictator Arafat talked of reforms. Yet so far, no one put forward any plans or criteria for reforms. While the leadership and membership talks of reforms within Fatah and the PLO, they all mean distribution of the “goods” and the goods means jobs and what comes with it from power to fleece and rob and of course they mean who will benefit the most out of any deal with Israel. I guess Oslo taught every one within Fatah and the PLO how to milk the cow that is the Palestinian cause. Reforms mean transparency. Reforms mean accountability. Reforms means losing the monopoly over the “cause” which in fact has been nothing but “business” for the leadership for a long time. Unlike business where corporate leaders once in a great while come to answer failures from shareholders, Fatah and PLO do not answer to no one. Membership does not dare ask questions, and of course the Palestinians people have been and for a long time “nothing” no body to the leadership. They have been hapless and helpless and they deserve what they got.

Like the Communist Party where the leadership and membership where all it counts while the people are nothing but servants for the party and the Communist Cause, the same is true of Fatah and the PLO. It is all about the leadership and it is all about the “little people” who make up the membership and who live off the crumbs from the top. The Communist Party failed because it failed to deliver what the people wants, freedom and a decent life. Fatah and the PLO will fail, if not already failed, because they did not deliver freedom from the Occupation, let alone realized the rights of return. Like the Communist Party, the leadership lived high like a ‘hogs” in large private apartments and large villas, while the rest of the people lived in shabby apartment buildings sharing kitchens and bathrooms. Fatah and PLO leadership are doing the same thing, living the good life while millions live the miserable life in refugee camps. While the children of the leadership enjoy first class educations in US and European universities at costs of tens of thousands of dollars of the people money, the children of the people are asked to pay with their own lives so the leadership can live and can collect on its deals with Israel. Fatah and the PLO have written their own demise long time ago, the day they gave Arafat control over every thing.

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