Israel is not to blame for shelved Palestinian elections

Last week, the irony that stalks the Middle East found a new expression: while Israel has been playing out an almost comical surfeit of democracy, staging four elections in two years, the Palestinian Authority, which has refused to give voters a say since 2006, has shelved another election.

Mahmoud Abbas, 85, is currently enjoying the 16th year of his supposedly four-year term as Palestinian president. (Would it be too cheap a shot to wonder how the world would react if Netanyahu behaved like that?) When he announced that a poll would finally be held this month, seasoned observers laid bets that it would never happen. After all, having been trounced by Hamas in 2006 – leading to a brutal civil war and the loss of Gaza to the terror group – staging a re-match would be the equivalent of a sheep arranging to celebrate Eid. As a spokesman for Mohammad Dahlan, a presidential challenger, put it: ‘Only those who are afraid of the results don’t want elections.’