Abbas ger upp?

Mahmoud Abbas säger att han inte kommer att ställa upp i presidentvalet 2010. Om han menar allvar kommer det att ställa till problem för Fatah eftersom det inte finns någon klar efterföljare till Abbas. Men det är mycket möjligt att det bara är ett trick av Abbas för förbättra sin ställning efter att han fått mycket kritik den senaste tiden. Det är också möjligt att han på dethär sättet försöker sätta press på USA: "Gör något snabbt medan ni ännu har mig vid makten."
'Abbas won't re-run for office'

David Horovitz har skrivit en artikel om Abbas tid vid makten. Han betraktar Abbas som en obeslutsam ledare som kanske haft goda föresatser men inte lyckats förverkliga dem.
Editor's Notes: Five years of dithering
"...And so, after Camp David came the terror war of the second intifada, and Arafat went to his grave having proved incapable of setting down the gun in favor of the olive branch.
DESPITE THE Holocaust-denying doctorate and the long years spent at Arafat's side, Mahmoud Abbas was supposed to be different.
The body-language of his meetings with Israeli leaders, most notably prime minister Ehud Olmert, was relaxed and open. The handshakes were warm. Shoulders were patted. Smiles were broad. And when the cameras were gone, we were told, the conversations were constructive and purposeful. Ariel Sharon told this newspaper more than once that he believed Abbas truly sought coexistence with Israel. Olmert was so convinced of Abbas's peace-partner credentials as to have won over George W. Bush; hence the ill-fated Annapolis process that was supposed to have cemented the partnership.
But whether or not Abbas genuinely had the desire, it must now be definitively accepted that he has lacked the courage. He lacked the courage to tell his people the truth about Israel: that our historical legitimacy, precisely here between the river and the sea, is indisputable; that our presence is not an injustice wrought upon the Palestinians by a Holocaust-guilty Europe, but rather the belated correction of a historical injustice done to the exiled Jews; that both peoples need to find enlightened compromise and seek to live peacefully side by side.
Abbas lacked the courage to seize the opportunity of a deal with the desperate Olmert - an Israeli prime minister who, late in his political life, had become persuaded that a two-state solution was an urgent imperative for Israel, and who belied the claim that no Israeli prime minister would give more to the Palestinians than Barak offered in vain to Arafat.
The gaps were too wide, Abbas complained, even as he cited a purported Olmert offer of 97 percent of the West Bank and recognition in principle (denied by Olmert) of a Palestinian "right of return." He preferred, as he told The Washington Post this past May, to bide his time. "I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," he said, in an article headlined "Abbas's Waiting Game." "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality."
Well, the waiting is almost over now for Mahmoud Abbas, but there's no "good reality" in store for him..."