Abbas urged to quit, scrap Palestinian Authority

[barb162]

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-03-17T154500Z_01_L17734160_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS.xml

Abbas urged to quit, scrap Palestinian Authority

Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:45 AM ET
By Wafa Amr
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Several top Fatah officials have asked President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, dissolve the Palestinian Authority and return responsibility for the occupied territories to Israel in protest at unilateral Israeli moves.

Senior Fatah officials said on Friday the idea of scrapping the Authority was debated for the first time on Thursday night by the Fatah Central Committee, which controls Abbas's faction.

The discussion highlighted frustrations within Fatah, beaten by Hamas in January elections, following Israel's seizure of a radical Palestinian leader in a West Bank prison raid this week.

A senior Fatah official said Abbas's top aide, Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, had sparked the debate in the Central Commmittee, winning support from several members. Others were opposed.

snip

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Fatah leaders have no one to blame but themselves

Where were they during Arafat's era of good stealings? Counting their part of the take, perhaps?

Their worst crime may have been making Hamas look like a reasonable alternative.