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Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=586431
Vacuum Left by Arafat Threatens to Split Fatah
(Independent-UK)Donald Macintyre - The Fatah Revolutionary Council is almost certain to nominate former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas Thursday as its candidate in January's elections to succeed Arafat. At an emotional meeting of Fatah "young guards" in Bethlehem Wednesday, momentum appeared to be growing behind Abbas' candidacy, despite a reportedly tearful appeal by Marwan Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, to back him as president as a means of pressuring Israel to release him from jail. The job of the "young guard'' now, says Palestinian National Council member Taysir Nasrullah, is to press a probable Abbas presidency "to fire all the rotten symbols of corruption in the cabinet and other forums, now that the guy who was protecting them has gone."