Good Luck, Abbas

Thanks to the Irish Examiner:

Armed Palestinian militants shut down a government building in the West Bank yesterday.
They threatened to kill members of the Palestinian parliament, demanding the Palestinian Authority provides jobs to former prisoners and to relatives of people killed in fighting.

The violent threats were the latest in a series of incidents of lawlessness in the Palestinian territories, and illustrated the challenge Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas faces as he tries to restore order and maintain a fragile truce with Israel.
In the West Bank city of Jenin, about 40 militants gathered in the main intersection, firing into the air as several hundred sympathisers encouraged them. The armed men were led by Zakariye Zubeydi, the head of Jenin’s branch of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades - a militant group linked to Abbas’ Fatah movement.

Mr Zubeydi told the crowd he was ready to march on the offices of local parliamentarians. “In half an hour, if we find any of them in their offices there will be blood and then our only language will be the bullet,” he said.

Later, two Aqsa gunmen, under orders from Zubeidi, confiscated the keys of the building housing lawmakers’ offices and shut it down, said Iyad Nassab, the building’s office manager. Mr Nassab said he sent everyone home before the gunmen arrived, and that the building was empty.

The militants demanded jobs for themselves, for Palestinians recently released from Israeli prisons and for relatives of those killed during the nearly five-year-old intefadeh, or uprising.

Last month, Mr Abbas launched a programme designed to provide jobs for hundreds of gunmen and militants on the run from the Israeli authorities. It offers security and government jobs to militants, with the best positions given to those who have spent the most time in jail or on the run from the military.

Hundreds of gunmen have already signed on to programme, which calls on the recruits to accept the rule of law and the gradual disarming of gunmen.

The initiative is the most significant step taken so far by Mr Abbas to rein in militants and is geared mostly to gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Al Aqsa gunmen have been responsible for much of the lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza. Last week, a group of Aqsa militants rampaged through the streets of Ramallah, trashing restaurants and firing on Mr Abbas’ headquarters, prompting the new leader to fire his West Bank security chief and announce an overhaul of the ineffective and often warring Palestinian security forces.

The Palestinian economy remains in shambles. The Palestinian Authority - one of the biggest employers in the West Bank and Gaza - suffers from a large budget shortfall, and Israel has barred most Palestinian labourers from entering the country to work.

It's really amazing how the Palestinian's can't figure things out. Their economy is messed up partly because they can't work in Israel, due to the fact that they keep sending suicide bombers along with laborers. They want their own state but will resolve most conflicts by shootings, bombings or self destructive rampages and the most violent reap the most benefits. Interesting way of doing business. Oh well, I guess they feel it's worked well for them so far.