Mahmoud Abbas’ Health Deteriorates, and Israel Prepares for Bloody Succession Fight

• Mahmoud Abbas’ Health Deteriorates, and Israel Prepares for Bloody Succession Fight
  by Amos Harel, https://www.haaretz.com/
  Head of West Bank’s Palestinian Authority was hospitalized for tests in U.S. at end of February.
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  In recent months there has been a deterioration in the health of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who will be 83 at the end of the month. Information about his health has been submitted to Israeli political and security officials.
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  Although the security cooperation between Israel and the PA continues to be managed well, Israel is readying itself for the possibility that a continued worsening of Abbas’ health will intensify the succession wars in the PA and undermine the relative stability that now prevails in the West Bank.
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  At the end of last month, while he was in the United States to address the UN General Assembly in New York, Abbas was hospitalized for a few hours for tests in a Baltimore hospital. He also underwent tests in a Ramallah hospital last July. In both instances, the PA spokesman issued denials regarding illnesses Abbas supposedly had and insisted that his medical condition was satisfactory. Abbas himself, in an interview with Palestinian television on February 22, said he was in good health.
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  However, Palestinian activists opposed to Abbas’ regime claim that he’s ill and getting worse. There was even a claim on social media that he was suffering from cancer of the digestive system. This claim was never confirmed. Some 20 years ago Abbas was operated on for prostate cancer, and the surgery was said to be successful.
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