The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has a habit of lurching from one supposedly game-changing initiative to another, then flinching in the face of resistance. After this summer's war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, at least half of whom were civilians, Mr Abbas threatened to join the International Criminal Court and have Israel indicted for war crimes, but then balked. Last week he threatened to cut security co-ordination with Israel when a Palestinian minister died following a scuffle with Israel's troops near Ramallah-and promptly backtracked.
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