Fatah Fudges Fall of Fayyadism

Fayyad’s departure needs some serious Palestinian spin.

After all, he brought a measure of sorely lacking accountability, transparency, and professionalism to the PA.

So if you’re one of the money-hungry hawks who pushed out Fayyad, how do you explain away Fayyad’s resignation to unhappy donors?

That’s easily done.

1. The West made Fayyad look like a stooge, Palestinian allies claim
2. Palestinians lash out at West as Salam Fayyad quits

Blame the donors? I just don’t see the wisdom of that.

That aside, Fayyad was someone Israel and the West could work with, but he was nobody’s chump. His agenda — simply building up institutions of statehood to create the reality of statehood on the ground — wasn’t sexy, but it resonated with Israel and the West.

Fatah can fight — its founder, Yasser Arafat saw to that — but its stodgy old-guard are utterly incapable of managing the economy, developing infrastructure, filling the potholes, collecting the garbage, etc.

Israel and the West can only deal with the leaders the Palestinians choose. Nobody’s going to save the PA from itself. Instead of knee-jerk blame-the-West reactions, how about looking in the mirror?

(Image of Fayyad via YouTube/AlJazeeraEnglish)