TEL AVIV — Israel has been grooming a jailed Fatah leader as
the next chairman of the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli sources said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was
preparing to release Marwan Barghouti by 2006, Middle East Newsline reported. They said Barghouti would be
released as part of an Israeli effort to find a successor to PA Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas.
"Abbas is fading fast and Sharon knows that Israel has to either help
groom a successor who is willing to make peace or face Hamas," an Israeli
source said.
Barghouti was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of several
Israelis in 2002. As Fatah secretary-general in the West Bank, Barghouti
see-sawed between being a harsh critic of the late Yasser Arafat and a
leading organizer of the Palestinian war in 2000.
In December 2004, Barghouti warned that he would run for PA chairman
against Abbas. But the sources said Israel and the United States pledged
that Barghouti would be released from prison if he dropped his candidacy.
The sources said Barghouti could be released from prison as early as
October, in wake of the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and
northern West Bank. They said Sharon has been alarmed by the loss of control
by Abbas over Fatah and PA security agencies.
