Israel Matzav

Fatah's ingrate?

In a sign of growing infighting within Fatah, a senior Fatah official has accused Western-looking Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of not being sufficiently grateful to the Fatah leadership.

A Fatah official in the West Bank has strongly criticized Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, accusing him of being ungrateful to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction.

The attack on Fayyad is yet another sign of mounting tensions between the PA prime minister and Fatah.

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However, Fahmi Za’areer, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, said on Sunday that Fayyad had been chosen by Fatah to head the government and “implement President Abbas’ pre-election platform and the PLO’s political program.”

According to Za’areer, Fayyad was appointed to the job so that Abbas would have enough time to “manage the conflict and end the occupation of our lands and people that has lasted for more than six decades.”

Za’areer, in an article published in the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency, also criticized the media for giving too much attention and credit to Fayyad.

“This government was not the brainchild of one person and its achievements are not his alone, no matter how much the media and cameras are mobilized,” Za’areer said, referring to Fayyad. “The political reality is that all what the Fayyad government is doing is a translation of the president’s and Fatah’s platform and vision. The prime minister does not have a private vision. The government is in fact the government of the president and the PLO, contrary to what is being said here and there.”

The Fatah official said that the Fayyad government had nothing to do with political matters. He also mocked Western politicians and World Bank experts who have been heaping praise on Fayyad’s plan to unilaterally declare statehood within two years.

Abbas and Fatah have rejected Fayyad’s plan.

Za’areer repeated demands for appointing Fatah representatives to key ministries in the government. “How can the prime minister also be finance minister, housing and works minister, Jerusalem affairs minister and information minister?” he asked. “He has become the minister of ministers and not the prime minister.”

The Fatah official also took issue with Fayyad for failing to say a good word about Fatah in the many interviews he has given to the media over the past few years. He said that Fayyad was being “ungrateful” to Fatah “although it has provided him with the proper atmosphere for success and defended him and his ministers.”

What Za'areer ignores is the fact that were it not for Fayyad's presence within the 'Palestinian Authority' hierarchy, it is unlikely that Western governments would be donating anywhere near the amount of funds that they are donating to the 'Palestinian Authority.' As much as the 'Palestinians' are the darlings of the West, they are tired of seeing their money disappear into private Swiss bank accounts.

But I'm always happy to see the 'Palestinians' tearing themselves apart. We do it to ourselves enough to more than offset them.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:35 AM