Gaza/Ramallah/Tel Aviv - Never since he was elected Palestinian president nearly five years ago with over 62 per cent of the vote has Mahmoud Abbas ever faced such as wave of criticism. Just after emerging stronger in August from the first conference of his Fatah party in 20 years, the soft-spoken 74-year-old suffered three consecutive blows.
The first was two weeks ago. After making it a mantra not to meet Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu unless the latter agreed to an absolute freeze of Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank, Abbas attended a summit in New York with the hardline Israeli.
Abbas climbed down from his high principles and in return received ... nothing, prompting some critics to characterize Abbas as the "village idiot" at a summit empty of content.
The next blow was the ability last week of his arch-rival Hamas, to secure the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel, in exchange for a proof of life - a video tape - of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier being held captive by the Islamist movement ruling Gaza.
The previous Israeli government of Ehud Olmert had in past years during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan freed hundreds of jailed Palestinian militants, as a goodwill gesture to the moderate Abbas, who Israel hoped to strengthen vis a vis the radical Hamas.
No such gesture was made to Abbas by the Netanyahu government this Ramadan.
But without a doubt the most most severe blow to Abbas' image was his decision last Friday to acquiesce to the deferral until March of a vote in the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report.
The report from the UN fact-finding mission led by South African judge Richard Goldstone found "strong evidence" that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during last winter's Gaza war.
The report recommended that unless they launch credible investigations of their own within six months, the leadership of both sides would be brought before the International Criminal Court.
The Human Rights Council had been expected to vote Friday on a resolution accepting the recommendations, but according to reports, Abbas had an aide contact the Palestinian envoy in Geneva at the last moment to have the motion postponed.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly this week did not outright deny that pressure was behind the last-minute flip-flop.
He said the US had "serious concerns" with the report's recommendations, did not want it to "distract" from the ultimate goal of reviving peace talks, and had been "very frank" about this to the Palestinians.
As always in the Middle East, rumours and conspiracy theories have been abundant since Friday about the exact kind of leverage used against the Palestinians to get them to pull the motion.
According to one, Israel threatened to release audio tapes of Abbas officials in the West Bank asking Israel not to lift the Gaza blockade so as to keep up the pressure on the Hamas regime there.
Another said Israel "blackmailed" the Palestinians by threatening to ruin a lucrative West Bank investment deal in which - Hamas alleges - "wealthy businessmen" linked to Abbas' administration were benefiting.
Yet another says Obama promised to pressure Israel more on settlements, East Jerusalem, and peace negotiations, while a different version asserts the opposite: that Washington threatened to disengage from the Middle East peace process altogether.
In any case, it seems Abbas miscalculated the response.
The feeling on the Palestinian street was dismay, even rage, at the decision, with many in Gaza - even some children - using the word "khain" (traitor) to describe Abbas.
Palestinian non-governmental organizations called the deferral an "insult to all victims" of the Gaza war, and Hamas leader Mahmoud al- Zahar said Abbas should be stripped of his Palestinian citizenship.
According to the most recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), some 52 per cent of eligible Palestinians would vote for Abbas, who had opened a large gap of 14 percentage points against the Hamas head Ismail Haniya.
But that poll was in August.
On Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in Amman said that feuding Hamas and Fatah would meet in Cairo on October 25-26 to sign a reconciliation deal that would see Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections between March and June 2010.
It remains to be seen just how much damage the latest developments have done to Abbas' standing.
