Jibril Rajoub is a familiar face in the theater that is Palestinian politics. Like any actor, he does not appear in every show, that is to say, Yassir Arafat’s regular cabinet reshuffles. However, after an artistic break of several months, Yassir Arafat has reappointed him as his national security adviser.
The frequency of Palestinian cabinet reshuffles has made them appear as choreographic displays of Arafat’s power. By shining the spotlight on others he maintains his position as the éminence grise. Rajoub has been sacked and re-hired several times in the brief history of the Palestinian Authority. There is little doubt that his re-hiring has all the markings of Arafat re-maneuvering to reclaim the attention that the recently appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud ‘Abbas has recently acquired. There were rumors in 1997 that Rajoub was preparing himself to take over control of the West Bank should Arafat die and as a punishment was suspended from Fatah for eight months. There were also rumors of Arafat pulling a gun on Rajoub last year for agreeing to a C.I.A.-brokered deal on the handover of 50 terrorists demanded by Israel.
He is known to have leadership ambitions and has fostered good relations with the Israeli authorities, who have often termed him “a man we can deal with.” For the moment, at least, it seems that Yassir Arafat too believes he is a man he can deal with, even if this was not always the case.
Born in 1953, Rajoub is a long-term member of Fatah. After seventeen years in an Israeli prison and expulsion to Lebanon in 1988, he served as head of the Preventive Security Force in the West Bank, with the rank of Colonel. He appears so often on Israeli television that his Hebraized nickname, Gavriel Regev, has stuck.
Rajoub and his colleague, Muhammad Dahlan are often paired. For a long time they were the Ministers for Preventive Security in the West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively. Now they are the security chiefs of Palestinian President Yassir Arafat, 74, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud ‘Abbas, 68, respectively.
It seems, for the moment at least, the motivations behind their appointments are preventive security for their current bosses. Neither Rajoub nor Dahlan is likely to acquire any real power before either Arafat’s or ‘Abbas’s political careers are over. What is far more certain is that Arafat’s re-patronage of Rajoub will overshadow the ‘Abbas-Dahlan partnership that Arafat so opposed.
Arafat must no doubt feel a sweet dénouement to this latest act in the tragedy being played out in the West Bank and Gaza.