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Is the Palestinian Authority Stable Enough for Peace Talks?
[Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs] Dan Diker and Pinhas Inbari - Salam Fayyad's agreement to remain as PA prime minister defied the unprecedented opposition to his new PA government by both Hamas and the Fatah movement. While Fayyad's stellar reputation in the West as a reformer-statesman continues to inspire confidence among U.S. security officials and Western donor nations, his position is far more difficult in the fragile Palestinian political reality. While the Fatah Central Committee tolerated the previous PA government due to its offensive against Hamas subversion in the West Bank, Fatah's overall opposition to the current cabinet reflects fundamental divisions between its "young guard" and the older and more powerful founding generation. Fayyad has continued to pay monthly salaries to nearly 12,000 Hamas Executive Force members, the same force that fought IDF troops in the recent Gaza war. He integrated militia leaders of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as local commanders in the PA's National Security Forces (the U.S.-backed "Dayton forces"). The deals he has made with local warlords in the West Bank have severely compromised his state-building project. Fayyad does not have the political base to succeed in the long term. Moreover, Washington's notion that reformed political power can be purchased is naive.