The Last Exile

Despite the semi-rosie spin Ha’aretz poses with suggestions that Fayyad’s popularity is growing significantly the truth remains he’s not Fatah or PLO. If he becomes too much of a threat to either Fatah or the PLO I doubt he will be allowed to remain and suspect he only owes his life as long as he can get the Americans to open their pockets – deeply. Ha’aretz:

The long-simmering tense relations between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are flaring up again after Abbas struck down a plan by Fayyad to declare Palestinian statehood unilaterally in summer 2011.

In an interview with Channel 2 on Monday, Abbas said that a Palestinian declaration of statehood – a scenario that provokes great concern in Israel – is not on the agenda.

Abbas and Fayyad, longtime political rivals, have maintained a reasonable working relationship. Both men are careful not to criticize one another or contradict the other’s statements in public.
However, sources in Ramallah said yesterday that their relations hit a rough patch following Fayyad’s interview with Haaretz earlier this month in which he hinted that the PA would unilaterally declare a state in August 2011 if peace talks with Israel fail.

Abbas and his aides were miffed at what they perceive as Fayyad’s attempt to circumvent his authority and dictate an agenda to the president and the other institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization. As prime minister, Fayyad is no more than the head of a government that is subject to the authority of the president.