Hosni Mubarak never quite seemed to understand who was in Tahrir Square and on the streets of his country, what they wanted or what was truly happening there.

Truth be told, he was not the only one, especially at the beginning. But unlike most everyone else who was surprised by the initial outbreak of the demonstrations and their strengthening, ongoing resolve, even at the end, he did not catch on. He was in denial even as he boarded the helicopter to Sharm el Sheikh. Ultimately, Mubarak left his palace because he lost the support of the army.

He never had the support of the streets.

The breeze blowing through the Middle East is likely a gathering of the solemn sighs of cold fear from other Arab strongmen and potentates who rule their respective peoples by right of might rather than by right of the ballot. The mostly languishing, unemployed or underemployed younger generation demands to be heard – now. Last weekend they shouted and marched their way onto the streets of Algeria and of Yemen. Any country in the Middle East where the drab realities of daily life are at infuriating odds with the more dazzling possibilities suggested by the modern world of e-mail and iPhones could be next.

Thus it was that the current leadership of the Palestinian Authority (PA) took steps on the weekend to immunize themselves against the claim that their regime, too, is illegitimate.

First, President Mahmoud Abbas announced that there would be both presidential and legislative elections by September of this year. A date was not set for the vote. No doubt the pace of events unfolding in other Middle East countries will affect the haste by which Abbas chooses a date for the election. Hamas denounced Abbas’ decision. “We will not confer legitimacy to these elections, nor will we recognize their results,” said Hamas’ Gaza spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum. It would appear that the radical Islamist rulers are feeling a bit nervous about the extent of the love they are feeling from their fellow Gazans.

Next, Abbas announced that he had asked his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, to demand the resignations of the entire cabinet. The move would enable Fayyad to appoint a new cadre of ministers who, presumably, would be more demonstrably capable and responsive to the needs and demands of the people.

Then, Abbas’ chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, resigned his post in an effort to abate the anger many Palestinians felt toward him for having purportedly offered too much to Israel during negotiations in 2008. Taken together, these measures are Mahmoud Abbas’ see-through attempt to pre-empt his own domino from falling. Time will tell if his people like what they see when they look through the transparent veil of the PA’s expediency.