Time running out for Mahmoud Abbas

FILE; SAMEH SHERIF/AFP/Getty Images

The one-year anniversary of the Annapolis Conference is fast approaching and the forecast for peace between Israel and Palestine is looking cloudy at best.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s quick retreat from the scene (he announced he would resign this month to deal with corruption charges) has stalled movement. And Palestinian President Authority Mahmoud Abbas told Ha’aretz that he is not happy with the lack of progress.

Further complicating matters, Abbas’s presidential term is up on Jan. 9, leaving the two-state solution table without its key players. The Palestinian media reported that Abbas plans to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), set up temporary government, and extend his term by a year.

But Hamas has already said that it will not accept his leadership after Jan. 9. Without elections, under Palestinian law Abbas would be succeeded by either the speaker or the deputy speaker of the PLC. Both men, conveniently enough, are members of Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be waxing optimistic that Annapolis’s goals will be met in the coming months, but hearing that the IDF is already training units in the West Bank to prepare for the fallout in Abbas’s absence, I’m thinking things are going to get worse before they get better. Memo to the next U.S. president: Don’t wait until your seventh year in office to get things moving.