Palestinians have to wait long to reap benefit from Abbas' win

The Palestinians will have to wait for a long time to see the benefit of choosing Mahmoud Abbas as their second leader after Yasser Arafat.

On the first day after he was elected as the new chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was busy at receiving congratulations from many states.

The United States, which boycotted Arafat and considered him responsible for the stalled Middle East peace process, also congratulated Abbas for his victory.

As the candidate of the mainstream Fatah movement, Abbas achieved an overwhelming victory in the election.

He won 62.32 percent of the votes, according to official results announced by the Palestinian Central Election Committee on Monday.

Although Abbas unveiled a good program during his campaign, the question now is, will he implement his plan or not?

Without the same charisma as owned by Arafat, Abbas is considered by many political analysts as a man who will depend moreon the Palestinian laws.

During his campaign speeches, Abbas cautiously avoided giving any promise to the Palestinian people that he would bring them a good life.

"I hate promises that we will do so and so. But what we did after the death of president Arafat, transfer the authority in a quiet way confirms that we can do good things," Abbas repeated many times in his speeches.

He also said that he would ask the incumbent Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei to form a new government and give Qurei more authorities than Arafat did.

But according to a Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, Abbas will face struggle with Qurei over the control of security branches.

Consolidating the Palestinian security branches, a major demand put forward by the US and Israeli sides to Arafat, was the last thing that Arafat did, reducing the number of security branches from 11 to only three.

"Abbas will probably give Qurei the authority to control all the branches," the official said.

Besides, Abbas will also face the challenge of reaching Hudna, or ceasefire, with the Islamic militant factions, and this will require him to deal with an armed group within the Fatah movement, namely the Al-aqsa Martyrs Brigades. before he goes to other factions.

Khaleel shaheen, a Palestinian analyst, said, "Abbas will succeed in improving the whole situation, but this group will not cease fighting for a long time if Israeli side doesn't give Abbas some things on the ground."

"The Palestinians have been living in miserable conditions since 2000, and the election showed that the people want somebody to rescue them from this situation, but if Abbas fails to do this, it will be easy for the Palestinians to uprise again, even against the president-elect himself," Khaleel added.

When Arafat named Abu Mazen as Palestinian prime minister two years ago, the United States and Israel welcomed the appointment, but they didn't give Abbas anything tangible on the ground.

That made Abbas' influence very week among the ordinary Palestinians and finally led to his resignation.

The success of Abu Mazen to break through the peace process in the Middle East will depend on the US and Israeli support to the implementation of the roadmap, analysts said.