The resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was clearly a blow to the prestige of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

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The resignation of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was clearly a blow to the prestige of Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had successfully lobbied for Abbas's installation as a fulfillment of President George W. Bush's promise for "new leadership" in the P.A., the cornerstone of Bush's "road map" for peace in the Middle East. A number of neoconservative commentators outside the administration, such as Joshua Muravchik, had warned of Abbas's weakness and predicted that Powell's strategy was "a road map to...