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Source: http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/04/05/backing_seen_weakening_for_abbas/
Backing Seen Weakening for Abbas
(Boston Globe) Charles A. Radin and Sa'id Ghazali - Mahmoud Abbas, who is being hailed internationally for his peacemaking efforts with Israel, is failing on virtually every important domestic front and is rapidly losing support in the territory he governs, Palestinian and Israeli officials, activists, and analysts say. Numerous attempts to disarm the gunmen have failed. Abbas's programs for injecting new blood into stagnant ministries and getting rid of ineffective and corrupt officials are stalled. And Abbas is incurring deepening enmity both from the Palestinian establishment, which is resisting him at every turn, and from the young guard of the ruling Fatah movement, whose members believe he is not fulfilling his principal commitments. Leaders of the old guard - in particular PA Prime Minister Qurei and Fatah chairman Kaddoumi - are openly confronting Abbas. Qurei opposed Abbas's efforts to arrange an orderly PA takeover of Israeli settlements in Gaza, while Kaddoumi never accepted the Oslo accords that led to the creation of the PA, and continues to call for armed struggle.