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Source: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100830/FOREIGN/708299839/0/news
Abbas Is a Man in Exile, Even Among His Own
(The National - UAE) Omar Karmi - Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, faces a crisis of credibility among his own people as he heads into direct talks with Israel in Washington this week. Perhaps nothing better illustrates this than a rather awkward security crackdown Thursday in Ramallah, when leftist factions convened a meeting to protest against Mr. Abbas's decision to accept the U.S. invitation to the talks. Privately, Palestinian Authority officials expressed their dismay at what looked to most like an effort by security services to stifle dissent. And dissent there is. All Palestinian political factions, bar one, have denounced the direct talks, some in harsher language than others. Only Fatah, Mr Abbas's own group, supports direct talks. "There is a real leadership crisis in the Palestinian arena," said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian analyst and a former legal adviser to the PLO, adding that it "is not responsive to the people it represents or even the factions it represents."