The usual suspects are dividing up power in the Palestinian authority: Arafat’s powers to be shared by Qureia, Abbas and PLC chair.

The Palestinian leadership, meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, has decided to divide Yasser Arafat’s powers among Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Legislative Council Chairman Rawhi Fatuh.

Also Wednesday, the Palestinians accepted an Egyptian offer to hold Arafat’s funeral in Cairo, before his burial in Ramallah, which was approved by Israel earlier in the day.

Arafat was described Wednesday as being in the “final phase” of his life at a Paris hospital.

The PA leaders decided that Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) will control the PLO (which is formally above the Palestinian Authority), Qureia (also known as Abu Ala) will be responsible for the PA government and the National Security Council, and Fatuh will take over Arafat’s official position as PA chairman.

The division of powers was expected to take effect immediately.

Meanwhile, a top representative of the Religion of Peace has rushed to the comatose terrorist’s bedside, to pray for him: Islamic Cleric Prays at Arafat’s Bedside.

The cleric, Taisser Bayod Tamimi, rushed to Paris from the West Bank to be with the 75-year-old Palestinian leader, who is in critical condition at the Percy Military Training Hospital, connected to a respirator and a feeding tube.

“I prayed to God for his recovery,” said Tamimi, who said he was with Arafat for more than an hour, reciting from the Muslim holy book. Tamimi said his close friend was very sick, “but he is still alive.”

Tamimi said earlier that life support machines would not be turned off “as long as there are signs of life in the body of the president.”

“It is prohibited in Islam,” he said.

Sheikh Tamimi is a big wheel; he’s head of the PA’s shari’a judicial system, and in 2001 he appeared on Palestinian television and opined on the subject of polygamy:

Sheikh Taysir Al-Tamimi, acting head of the Palestinian Authority’s Shari’a Judicial System, also emphasized this view: “…As everyone knows, in non-Islamic societies that prohibit polygamy there are many lovers and mistresses alongside the wife. I say to those who demand equality and whine about women’s rights that by permitting polygamy, Islam protects the woman’s humanity and emotions, and secures her right to marry and gain honor and esteem, instead of becoming a professional paramour lacking in rights whose children are thrown onto the garbage heap.”