the men of Abu Mazen

"and Ziad Abu Amr, a legislator and former foreign minister, who was to focus on the political arena. Both men are seen as close to the president."  I am so not surprised to see the political career of Abu Amr, with whom I sent to school at Georgetown.  When he was at school, he posed as a Marxist for a while but I knew it was not serious when he offered to sell me his Collected Works of Lenin just as he was preparing to go back to Gaza (after several decades of work at the PhD).  I thought to myself and I think I told him: I guess that Lenin would not be needed in Gaza.  And he managed to be loyal to Abu Mazen while having uncritical ties with Hamas as well, serving as a mediator between Hamas and the PA.  This opportunist role does not surprise me and it really coincides with the first impression I developed about him back in Washington, DC during my student days.