The new Palestinian government appears to be treading on very thin ice, reports Khaled Amayreh from Ramallah Is Salam Fayyad a political amateur? Well, his behaviour during the course of the past three weeks would suggest he is. Indeed, ever since the "coup" in Gaza on 14 June, which generated another "coup" in Ramallah a few days later, Fayyad, the appointed prime minister of the Ramallah-based government has been striving to be everybody's man, except for Hamas, of course. He has been telling the Israelis that he will "change the reality" in the West Bank and eradicate "terror" and "fight Hamas" as nobody has ever done before. Meanwhile, he has told the Americans that he is their man in Palestine and that he will seek to implement George Bush's disingenuous vision of two states living in peace side by side, Israel and Palestine (disingenuous because Bush assured Israel that it could keep the bulk of Jewish settlements in the West Bank which makes that vision unfeasible.) Furthermore, Fayyad has been trying to endear himself to the Europeans by telling their emissaries that he is the ultimate prototype of a Palestinian leader. And, finally, to the Arabs who have received only secondary attention because of their less than enthusiastic backing of his government, Fayyad explained that Hamas was their "common enemy". Indeed, his message to both Egypt and Jordan -- whose national security depends to a very large extent on the resolution of the Palestinian -- Israeli conflict -- has been that as long as Hamas occupies a dominant status in the Palestinian political arena, there will be no genuine chance for peace. Of course, while Fayyad's assessment of Hamas may have some superficial rationality, the thrust of his perception is wrong. After all, Israel and the PLO negotiated for close to 15 years in the absence of Hamas, and all the Palestinians got were more Jewish settlements on their occupied land, more roadblocks and checkpoints, a hateful apartheid wall built in the heartland of the West Bank, and the diminishing chance for peace. Domestically, the Fayyad government, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars being paid or promised by Israel and the West, seems to be suffering from the same shortcomings that characterised the national unity government and its predecessor, the Hamas-led government. This week, the government promised to pay a "full" salary to all public servants. However, when the public employees raced to the banks, they were told that their salaries wouldn't be paid in full because of the economic embargo." Additionally, a further 19,000 employees were not paid at all, on the grounds that they were hired by the previous government, which Fayyad and Abbas regard as "illegal". This draconian measure infuriated Hamas which demanded that public employees shouldn't be drawn into inter-factional politics. Security-wise, the Fayyad government, despite strong statements has achieved very little, if anything. It has failed to control the lawless militias, mostly affiliated with Fatah, which continue to behave like cowboys in the wild, wild west. Earlier this week, some heads of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (AMB) castigated Fayyad for demanding their disarmament and urged Abbas to dismiss him. Fayyad, who is an independent and has no base support amongst Palestinians, is trying to play the tough guy, mainly to please and appease the West and Israel. However, his ability to effect change on the ground is very limited, indeed. In fact, no one undermines his ability to effect change more than the Israelis themselves. The Israeli occupation army continues to carry out forays, raids, incursions and assassinations, mostly targeting Fatah and Islamic Jihad activists, in the West Bank on a daily basis. In the eyes of the politically conscious Palestinian public, this gives the impression that the Fayyad government is more or less a quisling government. Moreover, Israeli settlers, who act and behave as a state within a state, have been setting Palestinian fields in the West Bank on fire, destroying people's livelihoods and sources of income, all in full view of Israeli soldiers. During his meeting with Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak and later with foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, Fayyad asked them to stop targeting Palestinian activists on a daily basis if only to strengthen his government in the eyes of the Palestinians. They responded positively and praised him, but nothing further came of this. Israeli help to date has included the planned release of 250 Fatah prisoners only but this is unlikely to help, as it represents help shown towards the Fatah faction only. One Fatah leader quoted by the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz opined that the "release of the prisoners gives the impression that Israel is rewarding Fatah for collaborating with Israel and America... that won't help Abbas." There is another problem closing in on Fayyad and his government, namely its legality and legitimacy. This week, lawyers and jurists who wrote the interim Palestinian constitution have said that Abbas exceeded his powers when he appointed the new emergency cabinet. Anis Al-Qassem and Eugene Cotran, who began drafting the Basic Law more than a decade ago, said it "gave Abbas the power to dismiss Haniya but did not allow him to appoint a new government without parliamentary approval." Al-Qasem and Cotran explained that the Basic Law makes it clear that Haniya's unity cabinet should remain the caretaker administration until Abbas secured parliamentary approval for a new government. Ahmed El-Khaldi, a law professor who also worked on drafts of the Basic Law, said he was concerned Palestinian democracy was "in retreat". Two weeks ago, El-Khaldi was briefly abducted by armed militiamen loyal to Fatah. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that Abbas, Fayyad and their cohorts will be willing to heed the rule of law in this regard as they rely first and foremost on the power of the fait accompli. On 9 July, Abbas asked the now-marginalised Legislative Council to convene next week to approve the Fayyad government retrospectively. However, Ahmed Bahr, the deputy- speaker of parliament, rejected the call, saying the session would be illegal. Last week, the Legislative Council was to hold a session to discuss the current crisis. However, Fatah MPs decided to boycott the session, thereby thwarting the process. With Hamas now boycotting it, the same farce is expected to recur. This predicament, the root cause of which is the mass arrest by Israel of over 40 per cent of Palestinian lawmakers, could prompt an increasingly moody Abbas to dissolve the legislative council (which is illegal) and call for new general elections. However, new general elections, if truly fair and democratic, could be problematic for both Abbas and Fayyad. According to an on-line opinion poll, by the quasi- independent Bethlehem Ma'an news agency, of 72,000 voters, more than 42 per cent said they would vote for Ismail Haniyeh if new elections were to be held today. Around 33 per cent said they would vote for Abbas. In a similar online poll, by the semi-independent Al-Quds newspaper, of 30,000 potential voters, l5.2 per cent said they would vote for Haniya and only 13.79 per cent said they would vote for Abbas. While the two polls are not scientific, they seem to indicate that general elections, unless they are rigged, may prove to be another fatal blow for Abbas and Fatah.
