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The Future of the Palestinian Authority

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ehud Yaari and Nathan Brown - Yaari: More than three years after the inauguration of Prime Minister Salam Fayad's state-building plan, the PA is nearly bankrupt. Arab donors have failed to fulfill their financial pledges, private banks will no longer extend loans to the government, employee salaries have been deferred, and the deficit is effectively over $1.5 billion. Without evidence of substantial progress toward state-building, many have begun to question the need for the PA's existence. Brown: To outsiders, Fayad was perceived as both a symbol of Palestinian self-reliance and a vehicle for institution-building. Domestically, however, these perceptions held little credibility. Fayad was successful in reforming fiscal procedures, repairing traffic lights, and paying salaries on time. But such measures amounted merely to a recovery from the second intifada and not to the building of a state. Nevertheless, countless households rely on the institutions of the PA, and its collapse would have a significant impact. With the Arab uprisings that have swept the Middle East, a similar rebellion has not occurred within the Palestinian context for several reasons, including lingering exhaustion from the second intifada, the absence of a specific target for protests, and the lack of a tactical focus. Ehud Yaari is a fellow with The Washington Institute and Middle East correspondent for Israel's Channel Two television. Nathan Brown is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment.
2012-10-23 00:00:00
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