Observers warn that a lack of progress with Israel will foster factional fighting and destroy the Palestinian leadership
The Palestinian leadership is in crisis and threatening to implode over an inability to respond to Israeli initiatives, observers said yesterday.
Unless Palestinian president Yasser Arafat made firm responses soon, his leadership, the governing Palestinian Authority, and other groups would collapse under a tide of factionalism, they said.
The head of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, Mahdi Abdul Hadi, said although Mr Arafat remained a strong symbol of Palestinian identity, the leader was 'living a big lie'.
'He doesn't realise that he's sinking and that the Palestinian Authority is on the verge of collapse,' Dr Hadi said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Jewish settlers will withdraw from Gaza and abandon isolated settlements in the West Bank. But despite legal and political challenges, work is continuing on a security barrier separating the two sides.
