The chief Palestinian thug has announced that he won’t run in the 2010 elections. Abbas is doing this in order to prompt Clinton to soothe him by pushing Israel to make concessions.
The Americans are unlikely to allow Abbas to resign because his only potential replacement is Dahlan, a Palestinian strongman with no support in Netanyahu’s cabinet. It would take a leftist government in Israel to negotiate with Dahlan or release another possible leader, Marwan Barghouti, from jail.
