Palestine: Mahmoud Abbas Sticks Around as "President"

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Officials from the Palestinian Liberation Organization stated on Tuesday that Abbas's term as the Palestinian "President" will be extended when the PLO supreme body meets in December. Abbas's term, depending on the interpretation of Palestine's electoral law, has already expired or officially expires on 25 January.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior official in Fatah said: "The Central Council has only one solution and it is to entrust the president, as head of the PLO, with continuing as president of the Palestinian Authority until it is able to hold presidential and legislative elections."

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Sunday is the anniversary of the symbolic Nov. 15, 1988 declaration of independence by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

On the Hamas side, despite an earlier decision to keep schools funded by Fatah open on independence day, it was declared that schools would be shut.

Hamas also targeted Israel with words that claimed that "Israel was trying to find pretexts to cover up its previous war crimes with a preparation of another war."

Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, director of Military Intelligence, announced last week that Hamas had launched a rocket some 60 kilometers into the sea. In other words, it meant that Hamas could hit Tel Aviv if this rocket was fired from the northern border of the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said:

These claims are part of the Israeli lies to justify a new aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Such threats are coming under the title of incitement and creating pretexts in order to commit more new crimes against Gaza and cover up the previous crimes that were committed during the last war.

However, another Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said that he could not confirm or deny that the group had test-fired a rocket, "since such news come from the occupation [Israel]."

On the Fatah side, on Saturday, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam that the Palestinian Authority is considering seeking recognition from the United Nations Security Council of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He also added that both United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Russia are supportive of this idea.

On the eve of the national independence day, on one hand, Hamas is directing its words against and trying to give a "non-aggressive" image vis-a-vis its rival party Fatah. On the other hand, Fatah is appealing to nationalist sentiments and trying to give new hope to its people. But the question is: does Washington find this idea useful as a leverage against Tel Aviv's continuing resistance to change? Such a move would strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hand in the eyes of Israeli public?

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On Thursday, the chairman of the Palestinian election commission, Hanna Nasser, said that the 24 January election would be postponed indefinitely due to a lack of cooperation from Hamas, "We planned to go to Gaza to figure out how we can conduct elections there. In the meantime, we received an answer from Hamas that we are not welcome in Gaza. It is clear now that we cannot hold an election in Gaza."

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, confirmed, "President Abbas will make the appropriate decision after he returns [from Jordan]. Hamas' decision to ban the election commission from working in Gaza proves that Hamas is not eager to reach national unity and reconciliation."

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated that opposition to the election was because it had been unilaterally declared, "Without reconciliation, there will be no election."

And so Mahmoud Abbas' bluff plays out successfully. When he announced that he would not stand again for President, bringing appeals from various quarters --- the West Bank leadership, Israel, the US --- that he stay, Abbas knew the pretext of Hamas' position could be used to postpone the democratic process. And now he remains as the leader of Palestine (West Bank) without the inconvenience that he might not have won a Presidential contest in January.

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On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah accused the Obama Administration of giving Israel more support than that offered by the Bush Administration did and of disregarding the values of the Muslim world. In a speech broadcast to tens of thousands of supporters from a southern Beirut suburb, he declared:

Obama's initial settlement demand [on Israel] was an American ploy to pass the time and gain Arab sympathy.

What we see is absolute American commitment to Israeli interests, Israeli conditions, and Israeli security ... while disregarding the dignity or feelings of the Arab and Muslims people and their nations and governments.

Palestine Video & Analysis: Reactions to the Election Bluff of Mahmoud Abbas

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On Thursday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said,"I have told our brethren in the Palestine Liberation Organization...that I have no desire to run in the forthcoming election" on 24 January.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGxXyzu2T5o[/youtube]

The head of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo, quickly announced that the committee had rejected Abbas' announcement. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri jumped in to allege Abbas was bluffing, urging his Western friends to put pressure on Israel. Zuhri suggested an alternative course, "We advise him to...face the Palestinian people and tell them frankly that the path of negotiations has failed. Halt negotiations with the occupation and take practical steps toward reconciliation."

Israel and the US are calling on Abbas to remain in the election. Israeli president Shimon Peres told Abbas in a phone call, "If you leave the Palestinians would lose their chance for an independent state. The situation in the region would deteriorate. Stay, for the Palestinian people's sake."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "Of the existing alternatives, if we want an agreement with the Palestinians then Abbas is the best partner." Clinton subsequently asked Arab foreign ministers and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to press Abbas for a change of decision.