During the years 2003 to 2008, Abbas threatened at least 13 times to quit as president.
Has anyone noticed that it's been a while since Abbas has made such a threat? [I found an implicit threat from 2015 - EoZ]
It kind of makes you wonder just how relevant Abbas is these days?
True, Abbas continues to be the go-to guy when it comes to making payments to the families of Palestinian terrorists.
And Abbas does love to dedicate stadiums named after Palestinian terrorists.
But those do seem to be the main -- if only -- ways for him to stay relevant to the Palestinian Arabs.
Even his victories at the UN and abroad in getting recognition of a Palestinian state don't seem to have won Abbas much recognition, let alone leverage. "Palestine" currently is recognized as a "non-member observer state." And 137 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, while according to Abbas, France is considering the possibility too.
But that does seem to have helped the Palestinian Arabs much.
Hamas, too, wants to be relevant, and to do so they have been organizing regular riots at the Gaza border with Israel -- when they are not busy launching 500 rockets at Israel.
Things have not changed much from 2010 when this video came out:
From Hamas' perspective, they have been pretty successful:
o They got $15 million from QatarInstead of letting the hard work of governing tame them, as people claimed would happen once Hamas took power, Hamas has stuck to what they do best -- terrorism and holding hostages (in this case, Gaza) and waiting for others to come to them.
o They got Israel to agree to a ceasefire
o They take credit for Avigdor Liberman's resignation as Minister of Defence
Hamas' method seems to be working better.
Thanks to Qatar, Hamas was able to negate Abbas' leverage of withholding salaries and have not been cowed by Abbas' threats and withholding of funds.
Meanwhile Abbas, for his part, is being bypassed and played no part in this week's ceasefire.
True, like Hamas, he will not be criticized for his incompetence, corruption or incitement of hatred.
But no one is knocking on his door or rushing to infuse the West Bank with cash either.
