Hamas in Disarray

The LA Times has an article on the party now in control of the Palestinian authority. As predicted, it is much easier to criticize and second-guess from the sidelines: delivering security and basic services is much harder. Definitely worth reading the full article.

... Rivalries have steadily sharpened in recent weeks between Hamas and Abbas, who was elected a year earlier than Hamas and wields powers of his own as head of the executive branch. The two sides have repeatedly sought to limit each other's authority and cancel each other's decrees.

Within Hamas, it has become clear there is little in the way of an established chain of authority. Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister who is generally thought of as a leader of Hamas' pragmatist faction, has found himself preempted again and again by the group's hard-line exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Israeli analysts believe that Haniyeh, despite having a loyal following in Gaza, has been unable to muster any genuine authority in policy decisions and is fast proving a figurehead.

"The thing is, no one is really in charge," said Shlomo Gazit, a former head of Israeli army intelligence. "There are so many competing interests within Hamas, so the status quo, the fallback position, is the ideology that Hamas has always had, and they will adopt positions that have an internal logic consistent with that."