True, Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has changed the policies of the Palestinian Authority. But it's also true that it's still the same Palestinian Authority. Thus, post-Arafat diplomacy rests upon the old Arafat bureaucracy. What's more, the turnaround that Abu Mazen is executing is being carried out largely by the same people that he inherited from his predecessor. The structure of the PA and its personnel are almost identical to what they were before.

Even the aides inside the chairman's bureau in the Muqata'ah in Ramallah have not changed. There's Nabil Abu Rudeina, Arafat's shadow, now sticking to Abu Mazen, who would like to get rid of him but isn't doing anything about it. And there's Arafat's longtime secretary, Dr. Ramzi Khouri, who Abu Mazen wants to send to Beirut as the PLO ambassador, but that is a matter for the distant future, and Khouri is being very careful that in the meantime nobody grabs his seat next to the new power that is. And this is true for a number of other courtiers of the departed ra'is.

And if that's the way things are inside the personal bureau of Abu Mazen, it's easy to understand why there are no changes in the other echelons of the governmental pyramid. Everything remains as it was, although the slogans and the guidelines from above are different. All of the Arafat old-timers are still in place, pretending that they've been waiting all their lives for the advent of Abu Mazen but at the same time being very careful not to look as if they're critical of their old boss. Gen. Mussa Arafat, nephew of the former leader, is currently the chief player on the Palestinian side in security coordination with the Israelis in the Gaza Strip. His counterpart in the West Bank is Gen. Hadj Ismail, who over the last 20 years has become an object of scorn and mockery in the eyes of his men. And this is the picture in the civilian administration as well. The beneficiaries of the long-standing patronage system have held on to their jobs and titles and powers; only the trickle of cash from above has been halted because unlike Arafat, Abu Mazen is not in the habit of paying bribes to his subordinates.

Another Arafat nephew, Nasser al-Kadwa, the son of another sister, has even been promoted from U.N. ambassador to foreign minister and has taken the lead in the updating of Palestinian demands: Instead of speaking of a return to the June 4, 1967 lines, he has introduced a demand for Israeli retreat to the armistice lines of 1949. Although they are the same demarcation lines, this amounts to turning the wheels of history back to where it all began.

Nowhere have governmental reforms ever been carried out by those who are likely to be harmed by such reforms. This applies to the Palestinians as well. In fact, Abu Mazen's prolonged abstention from wholesale personnel changes means giving up on real progress and making do with an illusion of reform. Instead of loosing a spate of fresh water to flush out the administration, he is perpetuating and sanctifying the stagnant pools that he inherited.

So far, therefore, not one move has been made toward unifying the multiple security services into three streamlined organizations. Even members of the usually tame Legislative Council have been loudly protesting the impotence of the existing services in ensuring even a minimum of public order in the cities. And because there is no shake-up in these services, there is also no serious attempt to face up to the threat of renewed terror. All the existing agencies are doing is to plead with the known terrorists to restrain their impulses to attack Israelis. They do not attempt to take away their guns, let alone restrict their movements or detain them.

The cabinet headed by Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala) simply is not functioning. New ministers have been appointed, most of them political greenhorns devoid of power bases. They all know that in the summer they will have to hand over the keys of government to a new cabinet made up of members of the Legislative Assembly that will arise out of the elections slated for July 17. Therefore they do not take their ministries seriously. Abu Ala himself stays away from his office and passes his time making endless complaints about his boss, Abu Mazen.

What we have is the same old PA, though it's cloaked in some new policies that don't cover all the old politics that still control reality. Israel has a new partner indeed, but in words and not in deeds.

The Jerusalem Report, April 18. 2005 issue