What does Mahmoud Abbas want? Not so long ago the answer to that question seemed clear: retirement. Deeply frustrated by the lack of diplomatic progress, the veteran president of the Palestinian Authority announced in early November that he would not seek re-election. With a vote due three months later, his departure looked imminent.

And yet now it is as if Mr Abbas’s crisis of confidence never happened. The January election never took place – a casualty of the deep internal divisions that mark Palestinian politics. Mr Abbas, meanwhile, has settled back into the familiar routine of Middle East diplomacy.

On the latter point he might just be right. Mr Abbas is not one to set Palestinian, or anyone else’s, pulses racing. Plodding and uncharismatic, he is seen by most Palestinians as a weak leader whose accommodating style failed to deliver.

In fairness to Mr Abbas, that is not entirely his own fault. Whether by accident or design, he found himself undermined time and again by Israel and the US – most recently when they strong-armed him into distancing himself from a UN report that criticised Israel’s conduct in last year’s Gaza war.

Yet, for all his failings, and in the absence of a proper election, it is hard to see who could replace the president.

The second-tier leadership inside Mr Abbas’s Fatah party is made up largely of divisive strongmen, political has-beens and unknown quantities.

The problem is not so much that Mr Abbas has decided to prolong his term as president. It is that he does not seem to know what to do with it.

The lack of direction is perhaps most evident on the issue of peace talks. Mr Abbas has so far resisted pressure from the US and Israel to resume negotiations, arguing that Israel must first put an end to the growth of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. He argues that the continuing expansion of settlements undermines the chances of a peace deal as it makes a Palestinian state less viable. Another reason for Mr Abbas’s hesitation is his mistrust of the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yet, despite such misgivings, the odds on Mr Abbas reopening peace talks have shortened recently. Both Israel and the US have a strong interest in restarting negotiations, almost regardless of the fact that current circumstances make a diplomatic breakthrough unlikely.

Faced with such pressures, it will be hard for Mr Abbas to stand aside without being branded a rejectionist. The president has, moreover, shown little interest in formulating a political alternative to the ritualistic peace process – making it harder still to turn down an invitation to talk.

On the domestic front, Mr Abbas’s efforts to end the damaging split between Gaza and the West Bank have been marked by a lack of urgency and commitment. It is now close to three years since the Islamist Hamas group ousted the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip, yet so far all attempts to reconcile the rival Palestinian factions have failed.

No one disputes that brokering an agreement between Hamas and Fatah will be difficult and cause problems for the Palestinians in the diplomatic arena. Any deal is certain to empower the Islamists in one way or another – an outcome that will alarm Israel and most western governments.

There are, as so often in the past, no good choices for the Palestinian leader. He can sit down with Israel and lose credibility at home: or he can refuse to hold peace talks and lose the support of the international community. He can strike a deal with Hamas and risk isolation abroad: or he can continue to shun the Islamists and deepen the Palestinian divide even further.

Faced with such an array of unpalatable policy options, Mr Abbas’s indecision is perhaps understandable.

But if he wants his presidency to be remembered for more than diplomatic failure and internal strife, he will have to take his pick sooner rather than later.