MIDDLE EAST:Palestinian leaders must break with the past and impose law and order, writes Michael Jansen.
Salam Fayyad, premier in the Palestinian emergency government, and Ismail Haniyeh, his counterpart in the dismissed unity coalition, have pledged to impose law and order in the West Bank and Gaza, but both face formidable obstacles.
Yesterday Fayyad promised to crack down on all West Bank militant factions, not only Hamas, but said Israel must not take advantage of this effort by continuing to attack these groups.
On Wednesday Haniyeh declared Hamas would carry on with its campaign to cleanse Gaza of armed groups, clans and criminals. Both men will need to break the practice of a decade to succeed.
Lawlessness has been a problem ever since Yasser Arafat returned to the territories in 1994 and established the Palestinian Authority.
Instead of building institutions, he created a dysfunctional regime he could manipulate to maintain his total grip on power.
Arafat drafted loyalists who had served him in exile as well as local Fatah men into multiple security services. He did not want to risk a coup by creating large services but played off formations against each other to make certain that none became too powerful.
He also cultivated local clans with clout and recruited leading family figures for his governments, administration and security agencies.
Nepotism and corruption were rife, particularly amongst "outsiders" who had lived abroad. This created a great deal of resentment among "insiders", who had endured Israeli occupation.
The most influential of Arafat's agencies, Preventive Security, also engaged in commerce and set up monopolies with construction firms and importers to the detriment of the populace.
Preventive Security in Gaza, staffed and led by Fatah members, attacked, jailed and tortured members of the rival Hamas and smaller Islamic Jihad movements, creating a deep desire for revenge.
When the second Intifada erupted in 2000, paramilitary factions coalesced around key figures of every political persuasion. Some members also served in security units.
Since its 2002 reinvasion of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has attacked both resistance groups and Palestinian security services and destroyed authority facilities.
Israel has also blocked the resupply of the security forces, although party and clan militias are often better armed than the police and official agencies.
This has made it all the more difficult to initiate reform, even under the guidance of William Ward and Keith Dayton, two US generals who have been trying to transform multiple agencies into effective national forces.
Hamas has a better chance of succeeding in its law and order campaign than does Fatah. Since it defeated Gaza's Preventive Security last month, Hamas, using its 6,000-strong executive force and al-Qassam militia, has been able to drive gunmen from the streets and impose a certain amount of order.
It has offered an amnesty to Fatah, excluding Preventive Security agents, and tackled armed clansmen, including the Doghmash, who held BBC journalist Alan Johnston for four months.
Blamed for the Gaza debacle, Fatah-dominated security bodies in the West Bank are being purged of officers and men.
This is weakening already weak, corrupt and undisciplined bodies and making it less likely that they will be able to disarm and disband party militias and clans.
Furthermore, Fayyad has to preserve groups seen as resisting the Israeli occupation or be branded a traitor.
Israel is making it all the more difficult to cleanse the West Bank of unauthorised gunmen by isolating Palestinian cities, towns and villages from each other, using checkpoints, roadblocks and closures and depriving security agencies of guns and ammunition. This policy has strengthened local militants and criminal gangs and undermined the Authority.
Many Palestinians are angry over the Fayyad government's decision to pay only the 135,000 pro-Fatah Palestinian Authority employees and deny salaries to 30,000 associated with Hamas, depriving their 192,000 dependents. Palestinians are also horrified by the spectacle of West Bankers renouncing Hamas connections in the press.
Palestinians, who seek reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, fear Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the emergency government are deepening the rift between the West Bank and Gaza. Since Hamas remains conciliatory, this policy could backfire against Fatah and further undermine the movement, Abbas and Fayyad's government.