WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mahmoud Abbas: Negotiator Turned Autocrat
by Adam Rubenstein
August 1, 2017

…Mr. Abbas has always been weaker than Arafat, the authors explain, offering that he, unlike Arafat, “is not the charismatic leader of Palestinians. . . . He does not appeal to the Palestinian street.” Arafat, they argue, had the power to make peace with Israel but not the courage or the will. Mr. Abbas suffers from the contrary ailment: He appears to have had the will to make peace but not the strength. In addition to interparty disputes with the likes of the terrorist group Hamas, Mr. Abbas currently faces sharp political divisions within Fatah, the party he inherited from Arafat, with increasing public support for his rivals Mohammed Dahlan and Marwan Barghouthi. READ MORE