Abbas threatens to resign as Palestinian prime minister - The Washington Times: World: " RAMALLAH, West Bank � Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas threatened to quit as premier and resigned from a key post in Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement yesterday, reflecting turmoil within the Palestinian leadership over negotiations with Israel. "

In a letter to Mr. Arafat, he said he would step down as prime minister unless he gets clear instructions from Fatah over how to handle contacts with Israel.
Fatah officials said Mr. Abbas' move might be a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Fatah members to give him greater flexibility in the talks.

This is a perplexing situation for me. On the one hand I feel like Arafat is a hero to his people. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. On the other hand they seem to be making real progress with this new guy. This might be an illusion, however. We might be back to the same old same old in a couple of months or less. Stay tuned. (like we could tune it out if we wanted to)