"A day after Hillary Clinton returned from a swing through the Middle East where she pushed the Palestinians to go into peace talks with Israel short of a full Israeli settlement freeze, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is threatening to not run (again?) in Palestinian elections he has called to be held in January, reports say. UPDATE: He won't run. Decision is final.
Abbas is expected to give a major speech at 1:30pm EST. His expected announcement that he will not run in Palestinian elections "set off a flurry of calls from regional leaders, with the presidents of Egypt and Israel, the king of Jordan and Israel's defense minister all urging Abbas to change his mind, aides said," the AP reports. .... "What Abbas is trying to do is leverage his weakness to the extreme," said one Washington Middle East hand who asked for anonymity. "'Give me something or you will have no leadership here.' Conceivably what he is asking for is a setlement freeze. .... His sense is that 'Hillary tried to push me around. And I will show her.' Then fine, you [try to] go on without me."
"This is vintage Abbas ..."Like elections themselves (unlikely to be held) the threat of resignation is a ploy as well -- reflecting his personal frustration, but also designed to grab attention and get others not to take him for granted. On balance the threat changes nothing, although an actual resignation would."......
Abbas' expected threat comes a day after Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly floated a one-state-solution "warning shot to the Israelis," the former U.S. official said. "'We don't want independence. We want you to impose Israeli law on all of us, with passports, etc.' This is something being talked about in closed intellectual circles in Palestine."..."
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