The first is another intifada (armed uprising) against Israel. On the day before the declaration, a million Palestinians are reportedly planning to take to the streets.
Abbas and other leaders insist on non-violence, but what happens when these same frustrated people come out the next day, and the day after that? As Palestinian columnist Daoud Kuttab warned recently, "there is no telling which route the Palestinians will take."
The other possibility is an "intra-fada," an uprising against Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership. In keeping with the Arab Spring, the Palestinians may yet determine that their own government is the source of their frustration.
The PA is little better than the other regimes of the region. Its elites have siphoned off hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of international aid to enrich their own families and cronies.
Fatah, the dominant faction of the government, is ossified, corrupt, and cozy with almost all of the other unpleasant regimes in the neighborhood. This led in no small part to Hamas's shocking victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections.
Hamas, it should be noted, did not campaign on suicide bombings and firing rockets at Israel. It campaigned on good governance, a theme that resonated among the Palestinians. If another election were held tomorrow, Hamas might well win again for the same reason.
Fatah - and by default, the PA - has not reformed.
Today, Abbas has the support of the international community, but only because he looks great compared to Hamas. In truth, he is little better than Hosni Mubarak or Gaddafi.
Both of those leaders stayed in power long after their legitimacy had waned. Abbas, too, has now extended his presidency, even after it expired in 2009.
Mubarak tried to use his power to build an empire for his son, Gamal. Gaddafi did the same for his son, Saif al-Islam.
Abbas's two sons, Yasser and Tarek, have been gobbling up U.S. contracts and are running the West Bank like a mafia family.
On this point, a former adviser to the PA notes that the Abbas oligarchy is growing at hurtling speeds, while the population loses patience at roughly the same rate.
With the exception of Saudi Arabia and a few others, corrupt Arab regimes are collapsing under their own weight. Will Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority be next?
