[NYPost] But, like it or not, he won't live or rule forever.
And then what? To fend off pesky rivals, the Ineffectual President of the Paleostinians Mahmoud Abbas has long avoided anointing a successor or naming a deputy. So who decides who's next?
According to Paleostinian law, the speaker of parliament would take over pending new elections. But the parliament hasn't convened in years. And the current speaker is a member of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Abbas' Islamist rivals.
Israel and the US -- and, even more so, members of Abbas' party Fatah -- won't let him get near the seat of power. Nor would they risk another humiliating election, which Hamas is likely to win.
In other words, no one in the West Bank knows how the next leader will emerge -- "and Israeli intelligence officials, whose entire job is to predict such things, have no idea either," says Gal Berger, Israel Radio's indispensable Paleostinian-affairs correspondent.
When the time comes, the Fatah men who in the last few weeks started jockeying for position will duke it out for real. Such chaotic political fighting often leads to violence.
Once that violence ebbs, a new strongman will emerge.
But not a peaceful, democratic state of Paleostine. |