. . . younger leaders are starting to attack [Arafat] and his generation for mismanagement and cronyism. For them, the issue is not merely having a state, but what kind of state is worth having. Fatah members who grew up under the Israeli occupation are rebelling against the wrinkled exiles who came back from decades overseas to build a state and, in the view of these younger people, blew it. ''They can go to hell,'' said Khaled Elyazji, Arafat's former protocol chief, who is now running a center in Gaza for political change.What alternative type of leadership does Fayyad represent?
. . . . most Palestinian politicians and diplomats in Jerusalem expect [Abbas] to be a transitional figure between the era of Arafat and a new Palestinian leadership.
. . . [Fayyad] dismissed the security detail that the Palestinian Authority offered him, in the belief he should never show fear. He travels by car service and taxi, walks alone across checkpoints and fields his own calls nonstop on a cellphone. The father of three children in a Jerusalem private school, he left a much more lucrative job to become finance minister at about $1,200 a month, and Israeli and American officials who study the Palestinian Authority say he is an honest man.Can an honest businessman have credibility with unemployed Palestinians infatuated by the rhetoric of revolutionary struggle against the "Zionazi" oppressor?
. . . the struggle for good governance could be seen by Palestinians as a struggle on behalf of Sharon and President George W. Bush. Fayyad . . . argues that improving governance would benefit Palestinians day to day, and also foster ''character rebuilding'' -- restoring a sense of what they can accomplish on their own.This might seem patronizing and unrealistic to hot-headed kids egged on by terrorist factions, but the "Democracy in Palestine" movement is speaking to the substantial Palestinian middle class, which has a reputation as Westernized, educated, and hardworking, and which genuinely grieves its children lost to the allure of suicide squads.
According to [Natan] Sharansky, "Karsou represents an authentic position of the Palestinian middle class, who are familiar with the democratic experience from our side. The Palestinians have found themselves trapped in a corrupt dictatorship that strangles not only business initiative, but freedom of expression as well."I agree with Charles that the Road Map is not to be taken at face value. I think Bush is playing for time by stroking the Road Map enough to keep Tony Blair and the EUnuchs happy, while encouraging methodical businessmen like Fayyad and Karsou to gradually pry political power from Arafat's grip and build an infrastructure of law and property rights in the territories.
Will they be able to gain approval and trust from a critical mass of Palestinians, without being seen by the Israels as having been captured by terrorist agendas? Sari Nusseibeh has been trying to walk this tightrope with limited success. Perhaps enough has changed since the beginning of Intifada II almost three years ago: Saddam is no longer cutting checks, Arafat has been confined to quarters, the EU's financing of the PA is under investigation, and the Palestinians are hungry, broke, disillusioned, and tired of backing the wrong horse.
Also, Nusseibeh is an academic, a philosophy professor; although he has demonstrated bravery and integrity under difficult conditions, practical solutions to political chaos are not his area of expertise. I'm banking on the bankers.
(Much thanks to Gary Farber, whose link to the Fayyad article got me thinking about all this.)
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