"The background to this is that next January the term of US-backed PA Authority president Mahmoud Abbas officially ends. His term may simply be illegally extended, just as the elected Hamas-led "national unity government" was illegally deposed and replaced with the appointed US- and Israeli-backed Salam Fayyad "government." Already the jockeying to replace Abbas among officials who have no regard for Palestinian rights and interests is taking place. With no possibility of free and fair elections, after January, Abbas or his successor will have even less legitimacy than the PA leader does now. Those at the top are also aware that within Fatah grassroots there is growing impatience to rejoin the rest of the Palestinian people as part of the struggle, rather than allowing what is left of their movement to be turned into a tool of Israel." (thanks Electronic Ali)