Can Abbas Survive?

Al Jazeera English, January 17, 2009 - Does it matter if he is president or somebody else in the same mould as him?

...Many Palestinians increasingly say it does matter if he continues as president and that it is increasingly important to replace him with a leader who can, more authentically, represent his people.

It is interesting that in the last 10 years Fatah, the movement which (despite the ascendency of Hamas) is the spinal chord of the Palestinian national movement, has become increasingly bitter and divided.

[Fatah's factions] have united only once in the past 10 years - that was in November 2004 to appoint Mahmoud Abbas as a successor to the late Yasser Afarat.

Since then, they have been at war with each other. The movement is disintegrating.

We now begin to see a situation where these various, competing power centres find it necessary to unite once again....