The Fad Of Fayyadism

Robert A. Danin writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad has come up with A Third Way To Palestine:

Palestinian leaders first embraced armed struggle and then turned to negotiations. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has now initiated a third, pragmatic stage of Palestinian nationalism by building institutions and counting down to statehood. Fayyad's vision is a promising one, and Israel should help him achieve it.

According to Danin, what we are seeing in Fayyad is a new and revolutionary approach:

This past September, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down in Washington to dine with U.S. President Barack Obama, a barely noticed event took place in Ramallah. With little fanfare, the 13th Palestinian Authority (PA) government, headed by Salam Fayyad, issued its one-year countdown to independence. This brief and understated document is likely to prove far more significant for the future of Palestine than the White House dinner and reflects nothing short of a revolutionary new approach to Palestinian statehood.

For nearly a century, "armed struggle" was the dominant leitmotif of the Palestinian nationalist movement. This strategy was supplemented and ostensibly replaced by peace negotiations after the Oslo accords of 1993. The newest approach, adopted by Prime Minister Fayyad, a U.S.-educated former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist, signifies the rise of a third and highly pragmatic form of Palestinian nationalism. Fayyad's strategy is one of self-reliance and self-empowerment; his focus is on providing good government, economic opportunity, and law and order for the Palestinians -- and security for Israel by extension -- and so removing whatever pretexts may exist for Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. Fayyad's aim is to make the process of institution building transformative for Palestinians, thereby instilling a sense that statehood is inevitable. Elegant in its simplicity and seemingly unassailable in its reasonableness, this third way -- dubbed "Fayyadism" by some Western observers -- has nevertheless precipitated serious opposition. Some Palestinians fear Fayyad is only making life better under Israel's occupation, Israelis accuse him of becoming increasingly confrontational, and a growing number of international democracy advocates blame him for Palestinian political paralysis.

The funny thing is, what Danin writes about Fayyadism, with its self-empowerment and economic opportunity seems oddly familiar.


On July 9, 2009 Haaretz reported about an economic peace plan for the West Bank--Bibi Netanyahu's economic peace plan:

Palestinians reject Netanyahu's 'economic peace' plan
Top PA officials refuse to meet Israelis over issue, worry Israel will use plan to avoid political process.

Prior to the elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented his program for "economic peace," which he said would improved the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank. However, 100 days after having formed his coalition government, there is no practical progress on economic projects...

If it was going nowhere on July 9--according to The New York Times, Bibi's economic peace plan was already having tangible results just 7 days later on July 16, 2009:

Signs of Hope Emerge in the West Bank

For the first time since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in late 2000, leading to terrorist bombings and fierce Israeli countermeasures, a sense of personal security and economic potential is spreading across the West Bank as the Palestinian Authority’s security forces enter their second year of consolidating order.

The International Monetary Fund is about to issue its first upbeat report in years for the West Bank, forecasting a 7 percent growth rate for 2009. Car sales in 2008 were double those of 2007. Construction on the first new Palestinian town in decades, for 40,000, will begin early next year north of Ramallah. In Jenin, a seven-story store called Herbawi Home Furnishings has opened, containing the latest espresso machines. Two weeks ago, the Israeli military shut its obtrusive nine-year-old checkpoint at the entrance to this city, part of a series of reductions in security measures.

Whether all this can last and lead to the consolidation of political power for the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah, as the Obama administration hopes, remains unclear. But a recent opinion poll in the West Bank and Gaza by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, a Palestinian news agency, found that Fatah was seen as far more trustworthy than Hamas — 35 percent versus 19 percent — a significant shift from the organization’s poll in January, when Hamas appeared to be at least as trustworthy.

...The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it shares the goal of helping Mr. Abbas, which is why it is seeking to improve West Bank economic conditions as a platform for moving to a political discussion.

That New York Times article does not mention Fayyad even once.

So when did this Fayyadism begin?
According to Wikipedia, Fayyadism first started after Netanyahu's economic peace plan was already in place:

Fayyadism

On August 23, 2009, Fayyad came out with a detailed working plan for the 13th Government of the Palestinian Authority for establishing the fundamental infrastructures of a Palestinian State, called "Palestine — Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State", in which he detailed a two years working plan for building the infrastructures and institutions of the future Palestinian State, that includes, among others, building Government offices, a stock market, and an airport, developing the existing infrastructures, Separation of powers, Free market etc., with the purpose of establishing a "de facto Palestinian State", based on the premise that the peace talks with Israel were faltering.[21][22] Known as "Fayyadism", his political agenda follows that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Palestinians any closer to an independent state.
His main tenets[23] are: 1) Strong security 2) Good governance 3) Economic opportunity [emphasis added]

So what is the big deal about Fayyadism--and why is this plan named after Fayyad and not Netanyahu?
Maybe because 'Netanyahuism' doesn't have the same ring to it?

Or maybe there's another reason.

Just Journalism has a report noting that while the US credits Fayyad with the economic recovery in the West Bank, the media in the UK associates it with Netanyahu.

In Great Britain, the media ascribes the economic program--and its results--to Netanyahu, but not to his credit. On the contrary, the British media accuses Netanyahu of using the program as a distraction, avoiding the real work of recognizing a Palestinian state.

In the US, the reaction is the opposite: giving full credit for the economic turnaround to Fayyad.

Thus Thomas Friedman is the one who first coined the term Fayyadism:

Fayyadism is based on the simple but all-too-rare notion that an Arab leader’s legitimacy should be based not on slogans or rejectionism or personality cults or security services, but on delivering transparent, accountable administration and services.

The Washington Post was equally enthusiastic in its support of Fayyad and 'his' plan:

At the moment, the most promising idea comes from Mr. Abbas's prime minister, Salam Fayyad, who has vowed to build the institutions of a Palestinian state within the next two years, with or without peace talks. Negotiations between the current Israeli and Palestinian leaders could provide indirect support for that initiative, even if there is little progress. But the administration would do well to refocus its efforts on supporting Mr. Fayyad

In its search for the ideal Arab leader to bring about a Palestinian state, the media may have begun to give up on Abbas--paying lip service to his role in Middle East peace talks. That may explain the logic in Obama's giving additional millions to the West Bank at the same time that Abbas was refusing to come back to the table. As the economic viability of the West Bank becomes established, furthering that growth is becoming not only an end in itself but a means of enabling in time the establishment of a state as part of a natural process.

In any case, the US media would have no purpose in giving Netanyahu credit, which would only serve to diminish the reputation of Fayyad--and Fayyad's reputation is in need of strengthening.

Khaled Abu Toameh notes the weakness of Fayyad's position in the Palestinian government:

Fayyad, who ran in the January 2006 parliamentary election at the head of the Third Way list, won only two seats. His number two, Hanan Ashrawi, has since abandoned him, making him the head of a one-man list.

Abbas was forced to appoint Fayyad as prime minister only because of pressure from the Americans and Europeans, who threatened to suspend financial aid to the Palestinian Authority if the Palestinian president failed to comply.

Fayyad's government was never approved by the Palestinian parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council, as required by the Palestinian Basic Law. Parliamentary life in the Palestinian territories has anyway been completely paralyzed ever since Hamas forced the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip.

We've seen the lengths the media and think tanks will go to support Fayyad.
It remains to be seen what the Obama administration will do next.

Technorati Tag: Abbas and Fayyad and Fayyadism and Netanyahu.