Palestinian militant groups, whose armed wings have unleashed deadly attacks on Israel, ridiculed the changes Monday in the Palestinian Authority Cabinet as nothing more than cosmetic, a view widely shared by analysts, who also saw little change and no sign aging Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is ready to delegate power or prepare his succession.
The question also remained how much maneuvering room Israel would allow the new government, which had to scrap its first meeting Monday after Israeli tanks rolled in and encircled Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) slammed the new streamlined Cabinet as a half-hearted measure meant to appease an exasperated public.
Arafat had courted the three groups in hopes of persuading them to join a unity government, but they rejected his offer last week.
The groups were nowhere to be seen when the Palestinian leader raised the curtain on his new Cabinet Sunday afternoon, with his government pared down from 31 to 21 ministers.
“The new Palestinian team is disappointing and does not measure up to the aspirations of the Palestinian people,” said a Hamas political leader, Ismail Abu Shanab.
“The new ministers, even if they are competent, cannot influence or modify” the situation within Palestinian institutions and the PA’s political line with Israel, Abu Shanab said.
Abu Shanab urged the Authority to maintain a national dialogue with Palestinian parties across the spectrum.
A new government should be based on eliminating “the Oslo Accords, putting in place a program of unified struggle in the face of the occupation … and cleaning up our own (Palestinian) house,” Abu Shanab advised.
Hamas’ smaller counterpart, Islamic Jihad, pummeled the new government for not breaking with Oslo’s main principle of coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.
The new Cabinet “will not serve the struggle against the occupier. It will continue wanting to implement the Oslo Accords,” said Jihad official Khaled al-Batash, whose group watched the Authority arrest two of its senior leaders Sunday in connection with a suicide bombing last week that killed 17 Israelis.
He demanded that the Authority “adopt the choice of resistance” and set up a government with all “the national and Islamic forces that will be capable of managing the Palestinians’ internal and external situation.”
Besides the hot-button issue of Israel, the parties are disappointed with Arafat’s failure to oust ministers who have been dogged by corruption allegations.
In 1997, the Palestinian Parliament accused Civil Affairs Minister Jamil Tarifi, current Sports and Youth Minister Ali al-Kawasmeh and International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath of financial improprieties.
Their continued presence in the government was duly noted.
“This reshuffling does not meet the minimum aspirations of the Palestinian people who want radical reforms,” said Jamil al-Majdalawi, a senior political leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
“Certain ministers whose names have been cited in reports on corruption and poor management still have their portfolios in the new government.”
The reforms’ most prominent feature was the appointment of General Abdel-Razzak Yehia, a trusted member of Arafat’s inner circle, to the post of Interior Minister.
The 73-year-old Yehia, a former commander of the old Palestine Liberation Army, is well-respected, but analysts doubted he would have the clout to stand up to Arafat who previously held the key interior portfolio.
Yehia has been charged with the task of paring down the tangle of 12 security branches and cracking the whip on groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who have carried out the vast majority of suicide attacks on Israel.
“Yehia is probably the most intelligent man available as far as military issues are concerned but he won’t be here for long,” said Yezid Sayigh, Cambridge professor of international relations and former Palestinian negotiator.
“I very much doubt that Arafat will give him the power to do anything.”
Sayigh said Arafat will likely play al-Yahya against the Higher National Security Council, which groups the heads and deputies of all security branches, making both powerless.
“Yahya is a gentleman but that’s not enough. We shall wait and see whether Arafat will tell him to dismantle armed militias,” said Israeli political and military analyst Zeev Schiff.
The other prominent newcomer in Arafat’s reshuffled government is Salam Fayyad, West Bank head of the Arab Bank and formerly a renowned economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Analysts said they hoped he would be able to deal with complaints of financial mismanagement and a lack of transparency in the PA.
“Fayyad is about the only person who has the power and experience to deal with Arafat, but how long will Arafat be able to live with it?” asked Sayigh.
“The key issue lies in shifting recurrent expenditures and responsibilities for hiring back to where they belong,” and away from “Arafat and the presidential office,” he said.
“Fayyad is known as a good professional,” Schiff said, “but will he prevent Arafat from sitting on the money?”
Analysts agreed that the composition of Arafat’s new government reflected little inclination to bring in new blood and prepare the succession to the 72-year-old leader.
Indeed, most major players remained, and although the new government was tasked with paving the way for presidential, legislative and local elections, there was little indication Arafat would step down to a ceremonial post.
“That’s not being discussed,” Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator who retained his post as local affairs minister, told CNN.
“Israel’s attempt to rid itself of Arafat will delay his dealing with succession because he sees the entire conflict as a personal struggle which he has waged with stubbornness,” said Sayigh.
Schiff estimated that the absence of a prime minister in the new Palestinian Cabinet showed that “Arafat has no intention of dividing power.”

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