Wait a minute. This Palestinian "president" Mahmoud Abbas. He didn't win any elections did he?

[NNN0LHI]

Completely the opposite as I recall. He lost the election didn't he? The other guys won the election. And then Abbas was kind of "installed" as president during the Bush administration as our guy. Wasn't he?

Why didn't he ask for statehood while his buddy Bush was still president?

And another question is if he lost the election who does he represent? The Republicans over here who gave him this sweetheart job of playing "president", maybe?

Don

[rfranklin]

1. Well, Bush never won an election either...

but that's just a technicality.

[Hoosier Daddy]

3. BAM!

:rofl:

[csziggy]

2. Apparently he was elected - Hamas boycotted the election

On 25 November 2004, Abbas was endorsed by Fatah's Revolutionary Council as its preferred candidate for the presidential election, scheduled for 9 January 2005.

On 14 December Abbas called for an end to violence in the Second Intifada and a return to peaceful resistance. Abbas told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that "the use of arms has been damaging and should end". However, he refused to disarm Palestinian militants and use force against groups that Israel, the United States and the European Union designated as terrorist organisations.

With Israeli forces arresting and restricting the movement of other candidates, Hamas' boycott of the election, and his campaign being given 94% of the Palestinian electoral campaign coverage on TV, Abbas' election was virtually ensured,<20> and on 9 January Abbas was elected with 62% of the vote as President of the Palestinian National Authority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Abbas#2005_presidential_election

[NNN0LHI]

4. Yea, the rewriting of history appears to be fast and furious. Here is an actual news account

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005015,00.html

How Bush Got Religion

Hamad/Jerusalem Monday, June 16, 2003

<snip>Bush's evolution--some might call it a conversion--on the road to peace began last June when he gave a speech declaring his support for the creation of a Palestinian state. But that support came with a catch: a change in Palestinian leadership. Critics charged that this was just a convenient excuse for doing nothing. Over the past two years the Administration has been content to stand by as Palestinian militias continued to take a heavy toll with suicide bombs and Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Palestinian towns in the West Bank. But Bush's aides argue that disengagement was a strategy designed to force changes in the Palestinian Authority. Only when the unreliable Yasser Arafat was shunted aside would the President act. That happened in April, when U.S. pressure, Israel's isolation of Arafat and a sense of hopelessness among senior Palestinians combined to force Arafat to agree to the appointment of Abbas. "What took place last week never would have been possible if Abbas hadn't happened," says a senior Bush aide. "And Abbas happened because of the President."

[Jack Rabbit]

6. You are speaking apples and oranges, sir

You will not the date of the piece is June, 2003, while the date of the election that resulted in Abbas becoming president of the PA is January, 2005.

Before becoming president of the PA, Abbas was the PA's prime minister, a post to which he was appointed by the then-president of the PA, Yasser Arafat.

That is also in the Wikipedia article.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Are you saying a Bush appointee winning an election in a country while under occupation is valid?

Something like that doesn't raise your suspicions? Even a little? Its all good?

I am not so sure about that.

Here is some info from the link you provided:

>>>With Israeli forces arresting and restricting the movement of other candidates, Hamas' boycott of the election, and his campaign being given 94% of the Palestinian electoral campaign coverage on TV, Abbas' election was virtually ensured, and on 9 January Abbas was elected with 62% of the vote as President of the Palestinian National Authority.<<<

Sounds like everything was on the up and up to me alright. Doesn't it?

Don

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I'm not saying that it was a fair election, but the PA and the Israelis agreed to hold it

. . . and the US backed it.

So, yes, Abbas is a legitimate as most Arab rulers, such as Mubarak and Qaddafi. When the Palestinians take over the equivalent of Tahir Square and agree they've had enough of corrupt leaders just like they've enough of the occupation, then maybe something better will emerge.

[hulka38]

5. K&R

[Puregonzo1188]

9. I believe he did, but his term expired and he was made into a permeant president by US-Israeli

backed coup against the democratically elected Hamas, which resulted in Hamas seizing Gaza and a collaboratist regime in the West Bank presided over by Mahmoud Abbas.