Fayyad's alibi

This is an interesting article on the new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. He is the new darling of the west and will now be in charge of distribution a huge supply of funds coming from international donors. Fatah is a bit leery of him since he is not a member of Fatah. He has a less compromised reputation as far as corruption is concerned. He has prepared himself an alibi for the failure of his plans. This is from Haaretz.
Fayyad's alibi

By Avi Isaacharoff

Tags: Fayyad, Fatah, Palestinians

Today's donors conference to the Palestinian Authority, taking place in Paris, is a time for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to shine. A mere six months since he was appointed to the post, Fayyad has managed to win the international community's support for the economic plan that is the fruit of his labors.

On Thursday, Fayyad stood before a group of journalists in Ramallah and explained, in simple terms, the PA's expectations of the donor states ($5.6 billion over the next three years), of itself and, of course, of Israel. In Paris yesterday, Fayyad repeated the mantra before another group of reporters. The media-shy Palestinian prime minister wants to get his message out so that his plan can succeed.

However, it seems that even Fayyad is preparing for the possibility of failure. He regularly reiterates his two basic demands of Israel, which are conditional for the plan succeeding and the Palestinian economy flourishing: allowing the freedom of movement and goods in the West Bank and, as Fayyad says, "Israel must remove the blockade from Gaza, which has so damaged the Palestinian economy."
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But the Palestinian prime minister knows full well that these two conditions will not be met any time soon. Israel is not going to remove the blockade from Gaza, nor will it lift the hundreds of roadblocks dispersed throughout the West Bank. Fayyad does refer to World Bank reports on the subject, but he is getting an alibi ready in case Israel continues its policy and his economic plan does not bring about the awaited changes.

Fayyad is an exception in Palestinian politics: He belongs to neither Fatah nor Hamas, having helped found the Third Way party, and unlike most Palestinian leaders, Fayyad does not blame "the occupation" for everything.

He managed to dismiss 40,000 PA employees after his predecessors and rivals in Fatah had tried to win support by handing out government jobs. In Nablus he wrought significant change on the ground, making the city secure again. As a result, both the United States and Israel see him as "the great hope."

Nonetheless, it is difficult to see how Fayyad plans to implement hundreds of millions of dollars in economic projects without Hamas' agreement. He has also neglected to mention that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is continuing in part due to the pressure the PA is exerting on Israel to do so.

Some Fatah officials argue that Fayyad has been trying to signal to Hamas in anticipation of the possibility that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will go back to negotiating with them.

Such a scenario may be part of Fayyad's calculations, but Fatah complaints appear to stem primarily from the fear that in the next elections, Fayyad, with his clean public image, is likely to steal votes from Fatah. The billions of dollars coming in from the donor states will only help him do so.

New Palestinian PM: US-educated favourite of the West

So this chap worked for the World Bank and the IMF, that certainly qualifies him to be a prime minister after a coup. Note that the article does not even question his appointment or the legitimacy of the Abbas govt. sans Hamas. No doubt the civil war will continue to the detriment of the Palestinian cause.



New Palestinian PM: US-educated favourite of the West



RAMALLAH, West Bank: Salam Fayyad, who was on Friday tasked with forming a new Palestinian government, is a US-educated pragmatist widely respected in the West for his efforts to clamp down on corruption.

A political independent, the 55-year-old is a technocrat and former official at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank who won widespread praise for his efforts to bring greater transparency to murky Palestinian finances. The bespectacled, immaculately-dressed Fayyad served as finance minister from 2002-2005 and then again in the short-lived Palestinian unity government formed in March.

He is a fluent English speaker who easily quotes Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the American Declaration of Independence, and passionately believes in the principles of transparency and accountability.

An articulate advocate of Palestinians rights and hopes, he has won praise from unlikely quarters who rarely agree on anything.

A spokesman for former hardline Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon once said: “Everything that Fayyad is trying to do is well appreciated and is the right thing.”

The Israeli liberal Haaretz daily newspaper dubbed him “everyone’s favourite Palestinian.”

“A professional and dedicated person” who combines “a great commitment to the Palestinian people with an integrity and a professionalism that is much needed,” was how Fayyad was introduced before a speech at Washington’s respected Brookings Institution think-tank in 2002.

“Everyone who met him in the past few years was enchanted by him. In Jerusalem, Washington, Paris, London and many other capitals, Fayyad became the ultimate Palestinian ‘icon,’ the ideal partner,” Haaretz wrote this year.

Such respect was underlined when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met him after he returned to the finance ministry this year as part of the unity government, amid an official Western boycott of the cabinet’s Hamas ministers.

During his first stint as finance minister, Fayyad’s efforts helped persuade international donors to increasingly channel money directly toward the Palestinian Authority, rather than via non-government agencies.

He was elected to parliament during the January 2006 elections as the head of a small list, “The Third Way”, made up of candidates belonging neither to Fatah nor Hamas.

Following Hamas’s stunning sweep of the poll, Fayyad declined an offer to join the government formed by the Islamists.

He agreed to return to the finance ministry in this year’s unity cabinet to try to convince Western donors to lift a punishing aid boycott imposed on the government in the wake of the Hamas victory.

“I believe that my top priority is to lead the effort to end the economic sanctions and restore the soundness of our public finances,” he wrote in an editorial in a Palestinian newspaper two weeks after his appointment.

“As a Palestinian, it is my duty to hope and to exert my utmost efforts to transform the dreams of my people into real facts.

“We are a people who deserve to enjoy freedom on their land and who deserve democratic and transparent and accountable institutions. We are a people who deserve to live in peace and economic cooperation with their neighbours including Israel.”

“We don’t want to become a beggar state because we possess capabilities and education and talents that enable us to build a prosperous economy and a strong democracy.”

Born in April 1952 in the Tulkarem region in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, Fayyad received a bachelor of science in engineering from the American University of Beirut, and a masters in business administration and a doctorate in economics from the University of Texas.

In 1987 he joined the World Bank in Washington, where he worked before becoming the IMF’s representative in Jerusalem between 1995 and 2001. He also briefly worked at the Arab Bank, serving as its chief representative in the West Bank. He is married and has three children.