Salam Fayyad is certainly doing his best to dominate the headlines ahead of his Israeli counterpart’s visit to Europe. As Benjamin Netanyahu met with Gordon Brown to discuss faltering peace talks yesterday, the world was atwitter over the Palestinian prime minister’s stated intention to declare a “de facto” Palestinian state within two years. For an Israeli premier under pressure from both the United States and at home and attempting to overcome a resurgence of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe, Mr Fayyad’s announcement could not have come at a worse time. That, of course, is the point.
The Palestinian prime minister’s 65-page plan outlines the steps necessary to create a Palestinian state in all but name. But it is aimed more at pressuring Israel than providing a how-to-list for a functioning state. The current stand-off over settlements threatens to derail peace talks before they even begin. This does not seem to bother Mr Netanyahu much, at least not enough to give way to Washington’s demands for a “freeze” in settlement construction.
Perhaps Israel calculates that it can simply outlast the Obama administration and that a combination of Israeli intransigence coupled with Palestinian fecklessness and Arab inaction (all too common components in the peace process) will eventually turn the US Congress against Barack Obama’s peace plan. This outcome is a possibility and the strategy has worked before. But Mr Fayyad’s message on Monday was that the Palestinians will not be able to be blamed if the peace talks fail.
Most notably, Mr Fayyad said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would focus on bolstering the capabilities of its already much improved security apparatus. Under British and American stewardship the Palestinian security forces slowly are becoming competent professionals. Under the road map to peace, guaranteeing Israel’s security is a key requirement of the Palestinians. If the PA can accomplish this through the fielding of an effective police force, then Israel will have little excuse for their continued refusal to live up to their side of the bargain: a withdrawal from occupied areas and a complete freeze on settlement expansion. Israel often has sought to create “facts on the ground” to the detriment of the Palestinians. Now Mr Fayyad seeks to do the same to Israel by assembling all the necessary components of a functioning state with Israel the only barrier to attaining that goal.
The Palestinian prime minister stopped short of threatening a unilateral declaration of independence that Yasser Arafat so favoured. Mr Fayyad’s “West Bank first” strategy will not result in a proper Palestinian state, but it also will be more effective in its subtlety than Arafat’s brasher tactics. This is a shot across Israel’s bow, one that it will no doubt grab its attention, and it will greatly serve US-led efforts to move Mr Netanyahu’s government along a more productive path to peace.
Mr Fayyad is not corrupt and is eminently competent, both of which make him stand out among his peers in the PA. Israelis and the rest of the world may believe Mr Fayyad is capable of achieving what he says he wants to do, which would place additional pressure on Mr Netanyahu’s already divided coalition government. It is a clever move that puts Israel once again on the defensive, but it must be followed by progress, or the peace process will once again fail its promise.
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