Will Abbas outduel Palestinian militants?

jerusalem | Four months after he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas is fighting for his political life — and possibly for the survival of the peace process.

Last week, Abbas fought off militants' attempts to challenge the authority of the Palestinian government and dismissed a number of senior officers who had failed to prevent the challenge.

Abbas forced the resignation of West Bank security chief Ismail Jaber after riots aimed at the authority president ended with shots fired at his Ramallah headquarters.

Abbas took the move primarily to prevent the possible collapse of his rule, but it also is an advance payment to President Bush, with whom he was scheduled to meet later this month. According to the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, the many Palestinian security forces should be whittled down to three.

Jaber had been commander of the national security force, which with 15,000 police officers is the largest security body in the West Bank. Israel recently has exerted a great deal of pressure on Abbas to get rid of Jaber, considered too weak to deal with terrorists.

Avi Dichter, head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, recently met with Abbas and expressed Israel's concern at the authority's failure to reform the security services, disarm militant groups and stop terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. Even in Jericho and Tulkarm, the two cities Israel already has handed over, the Palestinian Authority is refusing to implement promises to disarm specific wanted terrorists and restrict their freedom of movement.

As a result, Israel has delayed handing over additional cities.

Abbas issued a presidential decree last weekend, forcing the retirement of thousands of police officers over age 60 and cutting both the size of the armed forces and his budget. Yet in a confrontation with the core of his opposition, the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade, the terrorist militia of his own ruling Fatah party, Abbas backed down.

In an apparent initial attempt to restore law and order, authority officials last week ordered six terrorists who had found shelter at the Mukata, Abbas' headquarters in Ramallah, to give up their weapons, join the security forces or leave the compound.

Instead, the men instead went on a rampage. They were joined on March 30 by other brigade members, who fired shots at the Mukata and in the streets of Ramallah and damaged businesses and restaurants that senior officials frequent.

After the March 30 riots, Abbas ordered a crackdown on the militants. He fired the Ramallah commander, Younis al-Hass, whose men did nothing to stop the gunmen.

But he did not go further, and ultimately he agreed to a deal allowing the terrorists to keep their weapons. That showed Abbas still has a long way to go on implementing Palestinian promises to take the weapons from all but authorized members of the security services.

Palestian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei condemned the March 30 riots and called on Palestinians to abide by the law.

"These acts serve the interests of those who are against our people," he said. "We must all respect the rule of law."

But Qurei's own relations with Abbas have deteriorated considerably in recent months. Ehud Ya'ari, Arab affairs analyst for Israel's Channel Two television, reported over the weekend that Qurei was keeping information from Abbas in order to weaken the president.

According to Israeli intelligence, senior figures surrounding Abbas are compartmentalizing him, reporting to him in a distorted manner or ignoring his orders altogether.

Abbas might give Jibril Rajoub, the authority's national security adviser, Jaber's old job as head of all West Bank security services. Can Rajoub meet the complex challenges of the job?

Rajoub, 52, was Yasser Arafat's longtime national security adviser until the two had a falling-out and Arafat fired him.

He is considered a pragmatist in terms of relations with Israel and is feared on the Palestinian street. If anyone can confront the militants, it is Rajoub.

Only if Abbas and Rajoub succeed in stabilizing the situation will the Palestinians be able to demand that President Bush pressure Israel to speed up the timetable for handing over additional Palestinian cities and dismantling West Bank roadblocks.