[Jerusalem Post] Barry Rubin - Salam Fayyad is PA prime minister for one reason only: to please Western governments and financial donors. Lacking political skill, ideological influence or a strong support base, he does keep the money flowing since he's relatively honest, moderate and professional on economic issues. But his own people don't listen to him and most PA politicians want him out. Fayyad argues that it's not the PA's job to negotiate bilaterally with Israel on the basis of mutual concessions and compromises. Instead, as other PA leaders have openly stated, the PA's strategy is to get the world to pressure Israel to give it everything it wants. The Palestinian narrative, to this day, is that Jews have no right to a state and that all the land is rightly Palestinian, Arab and Muslim. This narrative prevents a two-state solution. By feeding the PA's false belief that the West will pressure Israel into giving it a state in the borders it wants, without concessions or even implementation of past promises, the U.S. and Europe are doing a very effective job in sabotaging any possibility for peace. The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal.
2009-07-01 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive