Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 20, 2017
From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 20, 2017
Former Shin Bet head predicts Abbas won’t allow elections
Former Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, a Likud lawmaker, says he doesn’t anticipate new Palestinian elections while Mahmoud Abbas, 81, helms the Palestinian Authority.
The last Palestinian elections in the West Bank were held in 2005.
“I don’t know who will be his successor,” Dichter tells a group of US Jewish leaders visiting the Knesset.
He notes jokingly that there is a “higher probability” that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal will step into Abbas’s shoes than “Israel winning the World Cup,” referring to the country’s historically poor record in the international soccer tourney.
— Marissa Newman
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