Mahmoud Abbas recently froze the bank accounts of Salam Fayyad—who served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) from 2007 to 2013—on allegations of money laundering. Elliott Abrams explains:
[T]he main complaint of Abbas’s Fatah party against Fayyad (who is not a Fatah member) was always his honesty. He actually fought against and reduced corruption. For the powers that be in Ramallah to accuse Fayyad of money laundering is absurd and disgusting, and no one is going to believe it. So what is going on? . . .
Fayyad represents an independent voice, an alternative to the Fatah cronies of President Abbas. Moreover, Fayyad’s non-governmental organization [whose assets were also frozen] has had support from the United Arab Emirates, with whom Abbas is feuding because the Emirates also back his rival (and potential successor) Mohammed Dahlan. A political struggle, then, but one in which Abbas uses the power of the state in his statelet to bring criminal charges against his critics and freeze their accounts.
For a very long time (well, six years anyway) U.S. policy has been extremely critical of any Israeli move that the White House did not like, but largely silent about PA actions such as the glorification of terrorists. Here’s another PA move that deserves a strong condemnation from the White House and the State Department, and a stronger private warning to Abbas. And members of Congress who appropriate money for the PA ought to let its “ambassador” in Washington know clearly that this kind of tinpot-dictatorship move won’t be tolerated.
More about: Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Politics & Current Affairs, Salam Fayyad, U.S. Foreign policy