Fatah leaders have been asking PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to reconsider his decision not to run in general elections slated to take place in 2010. They argue that the “resignation” of Abbas at this time will leave a conspicuous vacuum at the leadership level and that Fatah would lose dearly with Abbas not at its helm. Others have opted to bestow on the Palestinian leader the epithets of statesmanship and greatness, giving the impression that the man is irreplaceable and indispensable.

 This is, of course, a clear expression of the primitive political culture permeating throughout Fatah circles and the tendency to transform Abbas into another Yasser Arafat.

 But Abbas is no Yasser Arafat as he conspicuously lacks Arafat’s charisma, and his ability to become Arafat-2 is very limited.

 But even if he succeeds in imitating or even emulating Arafat, whom he tried to neutralize with America’s and Israel’s aid, Abbas will not be able to make tangible achievements with regard to the “peace process” with Israel.

 To be sure, Abbas employed every conceivable tactic to endear himself and his Authority to the Israelis to the point of having his “security forces” working in concert with the Israeli occupation army against the forces of resistance. This is the essence of the “security coordination” between the PA and the occupation authorities.

 We all remember how the General Commander of Abbas’s National Security forces told Israeli army commanders that “we are allies, and we have one common enemy called Hamas.”

 Abbas also carried out a real inquisition in the West Bank, arresting Islamic sympathizers, closing institutions, and dismissing civil servants suspected of supporting Hamas, all in order to receive a certificate of good conduct from Israel and the United States.

 But to no avail.

 Eventually, as Israel continued to narrow Palestinian horizons in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, mainly by expanding Jewish settlements and destroying Arab homes, Abbas experienced a sudden awakening a few weeks ago when he declared that Israel didn’t want peace and that the 18-year-old peace process with Israel was going nowhere.

 To express his disillusionment, Abbas vowed not to seek another term as President of the PA, arguing that it was pointless to seek a second term as long as the peace process remained deadlocked.

 Abbas’s decision was a desperate feat illustrating the failure of his leadership as well as the failure of the entire two-State solution strategy.

 Abbas had been saying ad nauseam that the peace process was the only Palestinian strategy and that the Palestinians had no other strategy or alternative even if the peace process proved to be a great failure, as it already has with Abbas’s own admission.

 His aide, Sa’eb Ureikat, has gone even further, admitting that “18 years of talks with Israel has produced a zero result.”

 Undoubtedly, this is an admission of guilt on the part of the Palestinian leadership. After all, 18 years of stupidity, gullibility, deception and lies which cost the Palestinian people and its enduring cause dearly shouldn’t be dismissed as just another unforeseen miscalculation.

 Failure at the leadership level is a serious malpractice and amounts to a real breach of trust. Hence, the PA leadership ought to draw the right consequences from this gigantic fiasco and quit for good.

 But, alas, Abbas and his ilk are not of that calibre of men that would be honest with their people and admit “failure.” They would rather remain at the helm irrespective of the misery and suffering Palestinians would incur as a result of their leaders’ political failures and the futility and barrenness of negotiations with Israel.

 Now, Abbas’s friends in Washington and other Western capitals are urging him to remain at the helm of the PA, not so much because they are infatuated with him as a “moderate leader,” but rather because they think that he is more suited for the task of reaching a “sellout deal” with the Zionist regime, a deal that would effectively enable the Zionists to liquidate the Palestinian cause under the false rubric of peace.

 Nonetheless, these sycophants and hypocrites who have been organizing rallies in the streets of the West Bank demanding that Abbas stay as PA leader no matter what happens don’t tell us how the possible re-election of Abbas would serve the Palestinian people and benefit their cause.

 In fact, it is a foregone conclusion that a reconsideration by Abbas of his decision not to seek a second term as chairman of the PA would give Israel and the Obama administration an additional cause not to take him seriously in the future.

 Indeed, and despite the far-reaching but mostly verbal reactions to Abbas’s decision, his step was more or less too little and too late.

 Too little because his decision seems to have not even a minimal effect on the arrogant behaviour of the Zionist government, which continues to fly in the face of the entire world, including Israel’s guardian-ally, the United States, as is evident from the unmitigated settlement expansion in the West Bank.

 And, too late, because Abbas and his aides should have submitted their collective resignations a long time ago, if only as a warning to the international community that the Palestinian people will not allow the liquidation of the Palestinian cause under the disguise of a disingenuous peace process that is largely based on lies and deceptions.

 In any case, neither the Americans nor the Israelis will be impressed by theatrical tactics by Abbas or other Fatah leaders.

 This is why it is important for the sake of the Palestinian cause to seriously consider dissolving the Palestinian Authority, an authority whose continued existence has become a serious liability undermining the Palestinian cause.