Even as Mahmoud Abbas' minions were extracting the bones of Yasser Arafat from his grave, the Palestinian Authority upgraded its status at the United Nations to "Palestine" and was accepted as a non-member observer state by the UN General Assembly. The timing of the request for recognition by the UN and the grisly exhumation of the PA's "president" were part of the contest between Hamas and the PLO for Palestinian leadership. The contest was won by Hamas.
There are Palestinians who claim that the Palestinian Authority, which was unceremoniously expelled by Hamas from the Gaza Strip in 2007, rules the West Bank only from nine to five -- the day shift; the night shift is run by Israeli intelligence. Otherwise, they say, the Palestinian Authority would long since have collapsed.
For quite some time the leadership of the new Islamic world -- the one that grew like a weed after the Arab Spring -- has been of the opinion that the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas are no longer relevant and should depart.
Before and during Operation Pillar of Defense, Hamas received the support of the Emir of Qatar and was visited by senior officials from Turkey and Tunisia. Hamas received backing from Egypt and became the target of pilgrimages from Arab League representatives as well as a panoply of Islamic luminaries, who were all, like Shakespeare's Brutus, "honorable men."
They all gave Hamas a wind at its back, and, at the expense of the Palestinian Authority, supported it as the "victor" in the battle against Israel, despite the fact that Israel had just defeated Hamas in Operation Pillar of Defense -- a retaliation by Israel for weeks of being bombarded by missiles and rockets from Gaza.
Meanwhile Al-Jazeera TV, owned by the Emir of Qatar, broadcasts that it suspects that the Palestinian Authority was involved in a plot to poison Arafat. Al-Jazeera TV in Arabic also accuses Israel of poisoning him, but hints that the deed itself was actually done by someone on the inside, one of Arafat's loyal followers or bodyguards. That is why the Palestinian Authority gravediggers dug up Arafat's bones with such serious, frozen faces. The skeleton in the closet is the Palestinian Authority, because Al-Jazeera wants to destroy the Palestinian Authority's reputation by accusing its senior figures of complicity in Arafat's death, and forcing an investigation into his "poisoning." Al Jazeera's objective is to bury the Palestinian Authority, such that gaining UN recognition for "Palestine" is the last act the PA will ever perform.
Amin Farouk is a journalist based in the middle east.
