Waah! Abbas cuts funding to PFLP - after they criticize him

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a leftist group that has been part of the PLO for decades.

Well, maybe not any more.

Al Akhbar reveals the dirty backroom politics of "Palestine."

News of the Palestinian left’s objection to Fatah and Hamas sharing power in the government passed quickly and without much attention. But the new public rift between Mahmoud Abbas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) makes significant revelations about what politicians are up to.

Al-Akhbar learned from informed Palestinian sources that the situation has secretly reached a boiling point and a level of unprecedented tension between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has decided to end his relationship once and for all with the PFLP. He also halted the transfer of the money allocated to the PFLP and financial dues issued by the Palestinian National Fund, and prevented the organization from receiving invitations to attend any official meetings including the session of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee.

The sources reported that “the PFLP’s anger unleashed against Abbas” by leaders in and outside Palestine expresses their rejection of “the political direction adopted by the powerful leadership in the PLO and came after the PFLP’s demands to stop the corruption and unilateral approach adopted by Abbas.” Therefore, these unannounced decisions, in the sources’ opinion, are aimed at punishing the PFLP for its positions “but have no legitimacy and no value, rather they are illegal and strictly punitive in nature.”

The same sources told Al-Akhbar that Abbas’ reaction was not just the result of the PFLP’s rejection of negotiations. “What prompted him was the campaign that was recently launched by the front regarding political and financial corruption in the PLO’s institutions, the way Abbas monopolizes Palestinian decision-making and the limiting of consultations about government formation to Fatah and Hamas.”
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A PFLP leader, who preferred to remain anonymous, denounced the decisions saying at one of the meetings: “Would Abbas have taken such a step had the PFLP abandoned its position on negotiations for example or provided support inside the PLO or recognized Israel?” He wondered: “Does Abbas think that cutting money allocated to the families of martyrs, political prisoners and activists inside the PFLP - which are their inherent right - is going to dissuade it from its principled and historical positions? Does one person, regardless of his political status, have the right to expel a founding faction of the PLO without dialogue and an institutional decision?” He went on to say: “The PFLP is the second organization in the PLO and one of its main and founding factions... Abbas’ decision reflects exactly this unilateral, exclusionist approach that he represents and adopts inside the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.”

This article is obviously spin, and Al Akhbar is a Hezbollah-leaning outlet that hates Abbas. The PFLP is another terror group. (They confirm the main part of this story on their website.)  But this story does show that Abbas has been acting like a dictator, ruthlessly cutting out people who don't agree with him.

There is really little difference between how Abbas acts and how Egypt's former president Mubarak acted. Like Mubarak, Abbas is corrupt, he ignores any pretense of accommodating political opponents, he is ruthless against his enemies, and he acts like an absolute ruler and he is incredibly thin-skinned. And like Mubarak, Abbas managed to ingratiate himself with the West despite his ruthlessness and corruption..

And it is possible that, like Mubarak, Abbas might be overthrown by the secular leftists represented by the PFLP - but the Islamists will swoop in and take over instead.