Despite Fatah Victory, Abbas Still Needs Israel

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, despite his
victory in Fatah leadership elections, continues to rely on Israel to ensure
stabilization of the West Bank, a report said.
Israel's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies has determined that
the Fatah General Conference in August 2009, the first in 20 years, marked a
political victory for Abbas. But the center, in a report by senior fellow
Hillel Frisch, said Abbas would continue to rely on Israel to maintain
control over the West Bank as U.S. attention was increasingly directed
toward Afghanistan and Iraq.