From DEBKAfile March 31, 2006, 10:27 PM (GMT+02:00) ....
Two days after taking office, Hamas moved to show Fatah who is boss of the Palestinian Authority and its 40,000-strong security force
Hamas interior minister, Said Seyam renamed his office "Ministry of Interior and Internal Security," thereby sweeping the official Palestinian security force under his command. The question is whether or not the security personnel will switch its loyalty from Fatah. Our Palestinian experts predict the contest will be over and done by next week. An Israeli official who has been dealing with Palestinian colleagues commented: The men will take orders from whosoever pays their wages on April 1. He expects Hamas to get the funds together by then following efforts by the incoming prime minister Ismail Haniya, the interior minister and finance minister Dr. Omar Abdel Razek.
Those sources report that the Fatah leader and former minister Mohammed Dahlan called on Egyptian intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman in Cairo Thursday, March 30, to ask for help to raise money to cover the PA payroll. Without those funds, he warned, Fatah would quickly lose control of the security forces and by default the Palestinian Authority. Suleiman did not argue the point. Neither did he respond to Dahlan’s appeal.
DEBKAfile’s Palestinian sources also note that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas spends most of his time abroad and appears to be making a point of not standing in Hamas’s way. He touched down in Ramallah for one day Wednesday to swear in the Hamas government before taking off for South Africa.
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