The future of the Palestinian Authority..

Challenge to his authority mounts

RAMALLAH, West Bank Yasser Arafat struggled on Monday to resolve a political crisis and extinguish street unrest in the Gaza Strip as he faced perhaps the strongest internal challenge to his authority since establishing the Palestinian government a decade ago.
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Despite the deepening crisis, Arafat's position as the Palestinian leader did not appear to be in jeopardy. But he has been unable to restore order to the increasingly chaotic Palestinian areas, and has not commented publicly in the past few days on the turmoil swirling around him.
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In violence Monday evening, a prominent Israeli judge, Adi Azar, was killed in a drive-by shooting in a suburb of Tel Aviv. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.
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The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed it carried out the shooting, according to Reuters. However, Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, said on Israeli television that his initial reaction was that Palestinians probably had not been behind the shooting. The attack marked the first time a judge has been killed in Israel's 56-year-history, Lapid said.
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The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, said that the resignation letter he presented to Arafat on Saturday still stood and that Arafat had not provided a written response. Qurei, who has been in the post less than a year, said he was quitting to protest the lawlessness in Gaza and the disarray among the security forces, which are controlled by Arafat.
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"The Palestinian citizen in the street is saying, 'Why are they fighting? Is there any authority?'" Qurei said. "Chaos will not achieve our aims. It cannot bring victory. The winner is our enemy."
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Despite the resignation letter, Qurei headed a cabinet session on Monday and said afterward that most of the ministers were opposed to his decision to quit.
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Qurei also announced that a group of cabinet members would see Arafat to raise the ministers' concerns.