Israel Matzav

A recipe for success for a 'Palestinian state'

The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement is on hold as a result of Hamas' continuing rejection of Salam Fayyad as the Prime Minister of the caretaker government that would rule until there are elections in 2012.

Some of you may think that Hamas rejects Salam Fayyad because he's affiliated with Fatah. While that might be true, Khaled Abu Toameh reports that it's not the main reason for Fayyad's rejection. In fact, reports Abu Toameh, many Fatah supporters also reject Fayyad, and for the same reason as the Hamas supporters. It's got nothing to do with his qualifications and little to do with his honesty. It's something that's missing in his resume: jail time.

Fayyad's main problem, however, is that he did not participate in any violent attacks on Israel. Nor did he send his sons to take part in the intifada against Israel.

The longer the time one serves in an Israeli prison, the higher his or her rank is in the Palestinian security forces. This has been true ever since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. And this is how people like Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub became commanders of the Palestinians' Preventative Security Force.

In the West Bank, most of the senior officials running the ministries have either spent time in Israeli prisons or taken an active part in anti-Israel violence.

Because of this policy, many educated Palestinians who have never been to an Israeli prison are forced to search for jobs in the US, Europe and the Arab world.

There is no shortage of well-educated Palestinians who could contribute enormously to the establishment of proper institutions and good government. Yet they have almost no role in the "uniform culture," where many Palestinians continue to admire those who were part of the "revolution" more than university graduates and former World Bank officials such as Fayyad.

Yasser Arafat won great admiration largely because of his military fatigues, not because he studied at an Egyptian university in Cairo.

Fayyad would have become popular had he joined the armed wing of Fatah or Hamas and spent a few years in an Israeli prison.

In the US, I don't believe there's been a President who was a high-ranking army officer since Dwight Eisenhower. In fact, I don't think there was a President who was any kind of commander in the military since John F. Kennedy.

In Israel, most of our Prime Ministers have served in elite military units, but not all of them. Ehud Olmert, for example, did not. Neither did Shimon Peres.

But here's the key: No one who runs for office here has to prove he hates Arabs in order to be elected. That's what is really behind the 'Palestinian' insistence on electing leaders who have spent time in Israeli jails and who have participated in terror attacks against Israelis: They have proved that they hate Jews enough. Fayyad has not (although he's trying to prove it in other - thus far unsuccessful - ways).

If the 'Palestinians' were truly interested in a 'two-state solution,' one would not have to prove their Jew-hating qualifications in order to be elected to high office. The fact that Fayyad - arguably the most qualified man in the 'Palestinian Authority' to be Prime Minister - arouses the ire of so many 'Palestinians,' speaks volumes as to the 'Palestinians' true intentions.

I wonder if the Obama administration has figured that out yet.

Labels: Salam Fayyad, two-state solution

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:37 PM