A few days after Salam Fayyad's surprising announcement of his resignation, the Palestinian prime minister convened senior journalists in his office in Ramallah. For three and a half hours he laid out his "credo" regarding the peace process with Israel and explained his decision to resign by the end of March. A single motif stood out in all of Fayyad's remarks: pessimism.
Fayyad's assessment regarding the chances for successful negotiations with Israel was dark. In his view, a government in Israel led by Binyamin Netanyahu cannot be a genuine partner in a peace process, particularly while settlement construction continues. The departing Palestinian prime minister related that he has devoted considerable effort to persuading the European Union countries to compose an official document that firmly rejects continuation of the settlement project. He added that the Palestinian Authority would in the near future concentrate on persuading the international community to stop Jewish construction in the territories in order to salvage the peace process.
But the Palestinian journalists who came to Fayyad's office were far more interested in the prime minister's explanation of his resignation. He argued that he had decided to leave in order to facilitate the establishment of a unity government. In any event, he added, he would end his premiership by March 31. It was clear to his listeners that Fayyad's step did not stem only from purely patriotic motives and that he was not merely prepared to forego his position for the sake of Palestinian unity. Fayyad is smart enough to understand that precisely because he would be the first to pay the price of unity, he is better off avoiding the appearance of thwarting or hindering the Hamas-Fateh negotiations.
For some time now, Fateh has demanded that President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) dismiss Fayyad and replace him with a prime minister from the ranks of the organization. Fateh leaders were not particularly happy with Fayyad's success. He restored order to the streets of the West Bank, dealt successfully with the problem posed by hundreds of fighters from Fateh's armed militia, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, won recognition worldwide and especially by the American government, and became the "favorite son" particularly of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her staff. Fayyad was everywhere, visiting the "field" and recruiting billions of dollars in donations for the Palestinian Authority while maintaining high ethical standards and fighting corruption.
Yet it was precisely these accomplishments that led to his downfall: they inculcated in Fateh a sense that Fayyad, who is not a member of that organization, revealed its shortcomings; after all, its leaders had failed to overcome the very same challenges. The heads of the Fateh delegation to the unification talks with Hamas in Cairo, Azzam al-Ahmed and former PM Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), were among Fayyad's leading opponents. Many commentators felt they would be happy to hear from Hamas an unequivocal demand to replace the prime minister.
Indeed, Hamas too demanded the head of the independent Fayyad and insisted he not remain in office when a unity government is formed. Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, stated that "even if the sun descends to the palm of my hand, we don't want Fayyad as prime minister"--a particularly strong declaration in Arabic.
Thus Fayyad, recognizing that both major parties demand his departure, decided to preempt and resign. In so doing, he made clear that he will not be the obstacle to unity. Here it is important to emphasize that, despite Fayyad's achievements, it was not only the political leaders who sought to remove him: he never gained widespread Palestinian public support and was never considered a popular leader by the "street". A survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research carried out in early March showed that Palestinians are not particularly appreciative of the Fayyad government's achievements. Some 35 percent of those surveyed argued the legitimacy of the Hamas government in Gaza compared to just 24 percent who confirmed Fayyad's legitimacy. And only 32 percent were satisfied with the performance of the Fayyad government--confirming a trend of declining support reflected over recent months in Palestinian opinion polls.
Conceivably it was a combination of all these factors--declining public support, the deadlock with Israel and the desire on the part of both Fateh and Hamas to remove him--that led Fayyad to decide to resign. But what will happen if Palestinian unity efforts fail? In that case, Abbas can always say that he had never accepted Fayyad's resignation and ask him to again form a government. In this scenario, the departing prime minister will appear to have been called to duty once again to rescue the PA from oblivion.
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