Happy Anniversary Abbas! (Two Years Today Since Your Term As President Ended)

I must admit that despite the running clock I put on my blog, if not for Rick Richman, I would have forgotten that today is the 2nd anniversary of the end of Abbas's term as president:

Today is the second anniversary of the end of Mahmoud Abbas’s four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. He continues to play the role of “president” but is simply an unelected holdover, lacking the legitimacy to make the compromises necessary to produce a Palestinian state, even assuming he were willing to make them. It may be an appropriate day to reflect on the results of Palestinian democracy.

Richman also does us the favor of reminding us of just how meaningless Abbas's original election was to begin with:

Abbas ran essentially unopposed in 2005, in an election held less than seven weeks after Yasir Arafat’s death. Hamas boycotted the election and Abbas’s principal Fatah opponent was unavailable, serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison. The seven-week electoral process merely put someone quickly in office whom the U.S. hoped would implement Phase I of the Roadmap by dismantling the terrorist groups and infrastructure — particularly since Israel had announced it would remove 21 settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank.

Happy Annivesary, Abbas!

No doubt--you will have many more!

Technorati Tag: Abbas.