Abbas Moves Quickly to Demonstrate Leadership and Relevance

Abbas has never failed to impress me in his leadership of the PLO. He seems to be the man who is willing to do the job, and has effective strategies to diffuse or bring to the table naysayers.
It would appear that Abbas decided he can get a lot done without Hamas and intends to present to Gaza residents all he accomplished in the West Bank to leverage the people away from Hamas.
Los Angeles Times

Israeli officials said the offer went out selectively, to 178 Fatah militiamen, in the expectation that they would join the Palestinian security forces and turn full attention to disarming the rival Hamas movement, which calls for Israel's destruction.


By day's end, Palestinian officials said they believed that all those on the clemency list had agreed to the terms of the deal, which aims to bolster the Fatah-led Palestinian government in the West Bank and help advance peace talks between its leader and Israel.


[..]The clemency deal stopped short of pardon or amnesty. Israeli officials said they could resume efforts to arrest any of the militiamen and charge them with past offenses if a case-by-case review of their actions over the next three months warranted it.


Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, had been lobbying for such an arrangement for months in periodic U.S.-backed negotiations with Olmert.


Initially cool to the idea, Israeli officials embraced it after Abbas turned forcefully against Hamas, his partner in a power-sharing government, following the militant group's takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.


Abbas has vowed to disarm Hamas' clandestine armed wing in the Fatah-controlled West Bank. To do that, he has told Olmert, he needs to beef up his Preventive Security force with Al Aqsa gunmen but cannot recruit them out of hiding unless Israeli troops stop hunting them.