4-14-2014 The Riddle of Succession in the Palestinian Authority - Ehud Yaari
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the road to Palestinian succession, and potential candidates will likely have to form ad hoc alliances that result in significant policy compromises on peacemaking and other issues.
In private conversations with U.S. officials and other individuals, seventy-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has increasingly spoken of his growing "exhaustion," his family's desire for him to abdicate, and his "decision" to step down in the near future or refrain from running in the next Palestinian elections. According to the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, those elections are scheduled for a still-unspecified date early next year, and they will still be held in the PA-controlled West Bank even if reconciliation is once again aborted. The urgency of the succession issue is thus growing rapidly -- as the 2015 Fatah congress approaches, the pressure on Abbas and others to chart the transition and perhaps nominate the next in line for the presidency will likely reach a boiling point….
Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member
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