WHO WANTS TO BE THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY?:

Abbas Set to Quit, Palestinians Say (JAMES BENNET, September 6, 2003, NY Times)

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister favored by the Bush administration and Israel as an alternative to Yasir Arafat and as an agent of Middle East peace, plans to announce on Saturday that he is resigning, four senior Palestinian officials said tonight.

Late tonight, some Palestinian officials were trying to persuade Mr. Abbas to change his mind. He has previously threatened to quit without following through.

But associates of Mr. Abbas said he had concluded that there was no other way besides resigning to break what has become a crippling cycle of confrontation and compromise over the extent of his powers with Mr. Arafat and other leaders of the dominant Fatah movement. This way, the associates said, Mr. Arafat, under international pressure, may feel forced to bring back Mr. Abbas, or another prime minister, with guaranteed authority.

"It's the only way forward," a senior Palestinian official said. "We basically have come to a dead end here."

The only real power the Palestinian leadership has here is to determine which of them is in office to accept the statehood that the U.S. and Israel are determined to give them.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 5, 2003 11:41 PM