Israel/Palestine: Time up for Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas' four-year term ends today
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Monday, 12, Jan 2009 12:00
By Alex Stevenson
It's an unpleasant irony that Mahmoud Abbas' failure to bring about a two-state solution means he will not be leaving office at the end of his presidential term.
Four years have passed since Mr Abbas won elections to replace Yasser Arafat as the Palestinian leader, pledging peace and reconciliation.
He should have been stepping down and paving the way for the people he has governed to choose a successor.
Instead, amid the Israeli military campaign against Mr Abbas' political foes Hamas in the Gaza Strip, he is staying on beyond January 9th.
His time in office has been marked by conflict, violence and a lack of progress towards a long-term peace. Yet the western world continues to stick with him as a moderate leader beleaguered by events.
Mr Abbas has always had a delicate balancing act to achieve. He is the favoured Palestinian to negotiate with by Israel, the US and the wider international community. For much of his term, he has not been the favoured choice of the Palestinians.
It did not seem that way following his convincing win in January 2005. Yet despite initial successes, including achieving aid from the Americans in return for a crackdown on terrorists, he did not do enough to secure his Fatah party victory in the January 2006 elections.
That win proved disastrous for Palestinians who hoped the US' commitment to democracy - as seen in the invasion of Iraq - would trump its refusal to negotiate with terrorists. It did not, prompting the cutting of ties with the Palestinians and making life a misery.
Mr Abbas pushed his luck by calling for elections if a coalition government failed to be formed. Disputes over his authority to do so clouded matters but he managed to achieve a unity government in March 2007 - perhaps his greatest achievement in office.
That all collapsed in the summer of 2007, however, after Hamas' armed wings sought to seize control of security forces. Mr Abbas chose Salam Fayyad as prime minister - an arguably illegal action which in part led to him losing control of the Gaza Strip.
Since then the humanitarian crisis in Gaza developed slowly, tortuously, towards the current Israeli military campaign. Mr Abbas has pledged to stay in office until the violence abates, when elections will occur. He has the support of the international community.
There are mixed views about whether he should now stay or go. Frantic debate is taking place on the issue among Arabic newspapers.
Tariq Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of Asharq al-Awsat, wrote yesterday he wants Mr Abbas to back Egypt's reconciliation plan.
"The role of Abu Mazen [his other name] is to save the Palestinians after the Hamas coup in Gaza," he argued.
"This does not mean saving face for Hamas; it is more important than that. It means saving the Palestinian cause, which is being threatened to a large and dangerous degree."
Others, including Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abdel Bari Atwan, believe Mr Abbas should quit because he failed to achieve his elected mandate of bringing peace.
He told an event at the Royal Society of Arts in London yesterday Mr Abbas "should be honourable enough to say 'I have failed in my mission, thank you very much, bye bye'".
He added: "But the democratic western world, who believe in democracy and human rights and are lecturing us on it, say 'stay in power - we want you to continue'. I believe if we have a fair transparent election tomorrow Hamas will win."
So far Mr Abbas has succeeded in preventing rallies in the West Bank in support of the Gazans through the use of the security forces, which he continues to control there.
Yet that course of action reflects his failure to keep the Palestinian people's wider support. Amid the pain and suffering of the last four years, popular backing for Fatah has dwindled and is now replaced by pro-Hamas sympathy.
The trials and tribulations of Mr Abbas' four-year term have not yet dislodged him from power. But they have cost him the support of the people he represents.