I wrote a sort of political obituary for Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, after he announced that he wouldn't run in the 2010 election.
I got on a plane Friday and realized I forgot to write about the alternative scenario: Abbas might have no intention of resigning. He might just be bluffing.
Abbas' frustrated resignation speech was aimed at the American government (and, to a lesser extent, the Israeli government). He has been an amenable partner for negotiations over the last few years, and he obviously wanted Obama and Netanyahu to consider their alternatives.
There's also a domestic consideration here: Abbas is trying to outmaneuver Hamas. That's why Fatah signed the Palestinian reconciliation deal in Cairo, which Hamas has not signed; that's why he unilaterally called for elections in January, which Hamas plans to boycott.
He wants to cast Hamas as obstructionist. And he advances that goal by threatening to resign -- and using part of his resignation speech to criticize Hamas.
So maybe he's just bluffing. That said: The man really is frustrated. He wasn't pretending. It's not hard to see him getting fed up with politics.
Abbas received an endorsement of sorts from Israeli president Shimon Peres this weekend.
"We both signed the Oslo accords and I address myself to you (Abbas) as a colleague would: Don't give up," Peres said at a mass rally in a Tel Aviv square where Rabin was gunned down in 1995.
There was a lot of trepidation in the Israeli press this weekend about Abbas' possible resignation.
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Categories: Diplomacy, Israel & Palestine, Politics
Tags: Fatah, Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian elections, Shimon Peres
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