"RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is being hailed internationally for his peacemaking efforts with Israel, is failing on virtually every important domestic front and is rapidly losing support in the territory he governs, Palestinian and Israeli officials, activists, and analysts say.

Violence has surged in the West Bank. Firing by Al Aqsa Brigades gunmen at Abbas' own headquarters last week was just the most widely publicized of numerous recent incidents in which militants disrupted public order and scorned efforts by members of Abbas' administration to rein them in. The same day, other gunmen torched a Palestinian Authority checkpoint in Tulkarem. Abbas' interior minister was fired on recently by Al Aqsa gunmen in Jenin."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/04/05/backing_seen_weakening_for_abbas/

[linked from LGF]