Abbas Had No Partner in Peace

In announcing last week that he would not run for reelection as president of the Palestinian Authority, in effect Mahmoud Abbas is also stepping down from his unofficial position as leader of the dialogue with Israel-"our partner" as we say here.

In all fairness, we need to note the path this man has taken leading up to his announcement on Thursday at the PA's Muqata headquarters in Ramallah. In May of 2002, Abbas condemned the second intifada, which was then raging full force. He came out strongly against the senseless use of terrorism and called for a return to negotiations. In April of 2003, he came out in support of a draft agreement, called the Gaza Pilot, which I composed with two of his representatives. This plan called for a year during which the Palestinian Authority would gradually take control of Gaza and eradicate terrorism, to be followed by an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip. The plan was sent to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, but he rejected it. Instead he resorted to a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, which, as we know, was not conditioned on stamping out terror.