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Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/palestinian-political-sclerosis/
The Real Palestinian Pandemic: Political Sclerosis
(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Prof. Hillel Frisch - Mahmoud Abbas heads an organization that has witnessed only one leadership change in its 56 years of existence, and this only occurred when Yasser Arafat died in 2004. No elections have taken place for the PA presidency since 2005. Abbas, in his mid-80s, will not live forever and a power vacuum in the PA is inevitable. This leaves the situation ripe for competing warlords and Hamas to fight it out for succession. The writer is a professor of political and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research associate at its BESA Center.