The crisis of leadership throughout Palestinian history did not
start with Mahmoud Abbas and will, regrettably, be unlikely to end with his
departure. Although Abbas has, perhaps, done more damage to the credibility
of the Palestinian leadership than any other leader in the past, he is also
a byproduct of a process of political fraud that started much earlier than his
expired Presidency.
Abbas’
unforeseen announcement on August 27 that he, along with a few others, will
resign from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee
and his call for an emergency session of the Palestine National Council (PNC)
is a testament to his poor management. More, it shows his utter disregard for
the minimally-required threshold of responsible leadership.
Abbas, like his predecessor Yasser Arafat, has used and discarded the PLO and
its various, now near-defunct, institutions as his personal political playground:
summoning PNC members to vote on predetermined and decided agendas and to cast
and recast roles within the PLO’s Executive Committee as a way to punish and
reward.
Now, at the age of 80, Abbas is obviously concerned about his legacy, the fate
of the PLO and his Palestinian Authority (PA), once he is gone. Whatever political maneuvering he has planned for the future (including
the selection of new Executive Committee members, which will be overseen by
him and by his allies) is hardly encouraging. According to the Unity deal signed
between Abbas’ faction, Fatah and Hamas, the restructuring of the PLO as a prerequisite
to include both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in one unifying and relatively representative
Palestinian body was a top priority.