Abbas's departure leaves Mideast road map hanging

Abbas's resignation took many people by surprise; Palestinian officials indicated before the weekend that the prime minister and Arafat were working to resolve their standoff over power sharing.

Those efforts evidently failed. Abbas was also said to have been put off by a small but hostile protest - organized by Fatah, probably with Arafat's knowledge - that greeted him as he arrived at the offices of the Palestinian Legislative Council on Thursday.

"The demonstration that happened here" said Mohammed Hourani, a PLC member who has been supportive of Abbas, "it hurt him."

But whatever the immediate causes for Abbas's resignation, he was embarked on a mission that in retrospect appears to have had little chance of success - "an impossible position" in Mr. Hourani's view.

Arafat appointed Abbas this April because US and Israeli leaders refused to deal with the PA president, a leader they continue to view as tolerant of terrorism.

This insistence on voluntary regime change amounted to a demand that a leader with popular legitimacy grant power and standing to someone unelected but more acceptable internationally. The arrangement was troublesome from the start, with Arafat undermining Abbas's attempts to exert control over PA bureaucracies.

Israeli officials, though pleased with Abbas's appointment as prime minister, never did many of the things that would have allowed him to muster popular support of his own - such as withdrawing from West Bank towns and cities, allowing freedom of movement for Palestinians, releasing significant numbers of Palestinian prisoners, and curbing Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

"If [Abbas] is able to deliver on some or most of these elements," said Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki in a speech to a largely Israeli audience in early July, "I believe he will regain the support he has lost" by appearing to bend to American and Israeli demands at an early June summit in Jordan.

That didn't happen, in large part because Israel officials - as they have said repeatedly - never saw Abbas take steps to "dismantle" militant Palestinian organizations.

But Abbas always insisted on using negotiation first to persuade Palestinians to stop attacking Israel; he and other Palestinian leaders succeeded in convincing militant groups to agree to a cease-fire in late June.

His aides indicated he might use force if pushed to the wall, but until now Abbas has lacked the popular backing to use arms against other Palestinians.

Put another way, Israel demanded that Abbas use force before it would grant any peace. Abbas needed some peace up front, in order to use force.

• Ben Lynfield, also in Ramallah, contributed to this report.

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