Zuheir al-Manasra,Arafat’s new right-hand man

　　PLEDGING to try to stop suicide bombings, a new commander was ready to take over the powerful West Bank Preventive Security force July 5 after the former chief, dismissed by Yasser Arafat, ended a two-day standoff by accepting the ruling.Jibril Rajoub, former head of the security service, deposed by Arafat in a Tuesday ruling, finally met Arafat late Thursday and accepted the decision after defying the Palestinian leader for two days. Arafat appointed the governor of Jenin, Maj. Gen. Zuheir al-Manasra, to replace Rajoub, second only to Arafat as a figure of power in the West Bank.

　　Al-Manasra was appointed governor of Jenin in 1996. The northern West Bank town is close to the line with Israel, and al-Manasra had good relations with Israeli peace activists and with the Israeli mayor of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, Amram Mitzna.“We have to continue our meetings with Israelis and change them from enemies and adversaries to partners,’’ al-Manasra told media.The new commander said he would try to stop Palestinian suicide bomb attacks. Seventy-one bombers have killed 251 Israelis since fighting began in September 2000. Many of the bombers came from the Jenin area.“The Palestinian Authority is against such attacks on Israeli civilians,’’ al-Manasra said. “But it is a pity that the Israeli Government is targeting Palestinian civilians, which makes some Palestinians resort to this method. But we will work against the suicide attacks.’’

　　But Palestinian security chiefs rejected Yasser Arafat’s choice for the new West Bank leader July 7, increasing pressure on the Palestinian president as he faces U.S. calls for reform. The officers said al-Manasra was unsuitable because he was not from Preventive Security. More than 100 top security officials refused in a rancorous meeting near the West Bank city of Ramallah to accept Arafat’s appointment of Zuheir Manasra as Preventive Security chief in place of Jibril Rajoub. A smaller group of security commanders also met with Arafat in Ramallah late July 6 to voice their opposition.About 300 demonstrators carried banners July 7 in Hebron saying “we support Rajoub’’ and chanted “Down with al-Manasra.’’ They were careful to temper their anger, also shouting “Long live Arafat.’’ Ahmed Salhoub, a Preventive Security officer, said he and other officers won’t accept anyone to lead them other than Rajoub. “Arafat shouldn’t punish (Rajoub), but promote him to a better position for what he has done for the Palestinian people,’’ Salhoub said. “We are with Arafat and his changing of corrupt people, but we will not accept al-Manasra.’’ Salah Tamaizi, head of Preventive Security in Ramallah, said the opposition was directed not just at the ouster of Rajoub, who has often been cited as a potential successor to Arafat, but at his replacement by a political appointment. “We hope that our leader President Arafat will change his mind about Rajoub, and even if he wants to replace Jibril, he should choose someone from within the ranks of the Preventive Security force,” Tamaizi told media.Many members of the international community have called on the Palestinian Authority to overhaul its institutions to root out alleged corruption and halt violence in a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.Israel and the United States have gone further, urging Palestinians to remove Arafat in elections called for January next year. Arafat is widely expected to be re-elected.Arafat has also removed Mohammed Dahlan, head of the Preventive Security Service in the Gaza Strip, after vowing to streamline the Palestinian Authority’s nine security services into four well-defined forces under a new interior minister.Some Israeli and Palestinian analysts have said Arafat’smove against Rajoub and the dismissal of police chief Ghazial-Jabali were part of an internal power struggle rather than anattempt to meet U.S. demands to overhaul his security services.Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, called the dismissals “window dressing.’’Yoni Fighel, a researcher at Israel’s International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, told Israel’s Army Radio that by doing this, Arafat was only seeking to test his own power.“At this point, despite all the talk, his power is intact and he is still in charge,’’ Fighel said.Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan Khatib, a political analyst, said the changes would be followed by more restructuring and streamlining of the security services.

　　Relations between Arafat and Rajoub, once touted as a potential successor to Arafat, have been strained since a reported row between the men in mid-February where Arafat is said to have pointed a gun at Rajoub and accused the security chief of trying to replace him.Arafat was reportedly upset by Rajoub who had surrendered his security compound during a massive Israeli offensive. The Israelis arrested six Palestinian militants, but hundreds of other Palestinians inside were allowed to go free.The two are reported to have also clashed over attacks inside Israel in recent months by the Islamic radical Hamas movement and an armed offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah group.The former Palestinian security chief in the West Bank said Yasser Arafat’s decision to replace him with an outsider was “a big mistake” but there would be no revolt over the dispute. He has refused the new posts Arafat offered him.

　　Al-Manasra, an economist who received his education in Germany, was born in 1943 near the West Bank city of Hebron. In 1976, in Beirut, Lebanon, he fought at the TelZaatar Palestinian refugee camp, where more than 1,000 people were massacred by a Lebanese Christian militia at the height of the Lebanese civil war.The former fighter for the Palestinian Liberation Organization also directed the office of Khalil el-Wazir, once a top aide to Arafat, who was assassinated in Tunis in 1988. El-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was the architect of many PLO attacks against Israel. He is widely thought to have been killed by agents of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.He was appointed governor of Jenin in 1996.