Haaretz, Monday. Of all the American politicos on hand, only Howard Berman seems to have caught a clue, big trouble lies ahead. (h/t Bruce Wolman):
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday that the declaration of a Palestinian state would be a mere formality once the institutions of a Palestinian state are created.
Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah organized by the Saban Forum,
Fayyad said it is important to create institutions that are functioning, committed to the Palestinian people and free of corruption.…Fayyad spoke at a news conference with U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, who praised Fayyad’s efforts to develop the economy. The press conference was held at the end of a discussion Fayyad held with 80 guests as part of the Saban Forum, organized by Israeli-American media tycoon Haim Saban. Some 40 guests arrived in Ramallah from the United States, including three U.S. senators and five congressmen. …
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said of the visiting members of Congress that to a certain extent they arrived as investors, and are going to carry back to Washington their our own positive reports about how the money of the U.S. Congress has been spent. …
Howard Berman, a Democratic congressman from California, said the American visitors agree with U.S. President Barack Obama’s comments in his Cairo speech, in which he said the U.S.-Israel bond is unbreakable. But he said that feeling in no way precludes the strong commitment to the idea of Palestinian statehood and to the end to the occupation.
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{ 21 comments }
Its big success.
If Lieberman and Berman have a positive contribution to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state, you will object?
Also, their presence eliminates objections by AIPAC and likud. Who is going to say that Lieberman and Berman are duped by wishful thinking of radicals?
Gee, kind of like Lieberman has a positive contribution to the Democratic caucus?
Witty, you need to reread Phil’s headline. Although Palestinians would like to have some bread and water, they are not merely what they (don’t) eat (or drink).
I don’t get your response.
Among other things.
Much in the same way that Bush was the founding father of the new democratic republic of Iraq when he attempted to
installsupport Chalabi for presidency.i think that sums it up well nolan… this is a joke right??? lets get a forensic expert for some of the slow ones here…
Actually Lieberman did not endorse a Palestinian state, he only praised Fayyad’s economic development plans (which fits exactly into Netanyahu’s strategy). I’m sure Lieberman’s endorsement will win Fayyad votes in the next West Bank election.
Lieberman and the other visiting US Senators were scornful of any Palestinian appeal to the UN concerning statehood. Lieberman declared, “an essentially unilateral” declaration of statehood was the one thing that would not move the stalled peace process forward.” Sen. Kaufman (D-DE) said it was DOA – Dead On Arrival. They promised a US veto.
Hamas was in agreement with Lieberman, a unilateral declaration of statehood at the UN would have no meaning. Hamas stated it “was merely an attempt by the rival Palestinian camp of President Mahmoud Abbas to pretend it had an alternative to faltering peace negotiations, other than armed struggle.”
In contrast, I support Fayyad’s effort to finish the work.
I thought that Phil was being sarcastic, but didn’t see any comment within the article that would queue that.
He’s recently stated that he is not a one-state advocate (still on the fence, implied), but this sarcasm seems like advocacy to me.
I LIKE that Lieberman is in the same room with Palestinian leaders. They are not pushovers, not puppets. He and others will have to deal with the tangible questions that construct Palestinian viability.
Gee, yeah, not as if Lieberman has a history of being buddies with people, then turning around and stabbing his erstwhile friends in the back.
Huh. No wonder you appreciate him, Witty.
What a peculiar phrase, “institution-building”. I used to not understand it. Aren’t the Palestinians always attempting to build businesses, non-profits, and associations? Isn’t there already a PA administration wherever Israel allows it? Sure there is corruption, but the goal of ending corruption is pretty self-evident, and the phrase isn’t really evocative of that anyway. There are problems with the democratic process, but Fatah sure as hell is not trying to build respect for that right now. And what institution could the Palestinians possibly build that would nullify the iron grip of the IDF occupation?
Well, I think I understand it better now. “Institution building”, it seems to me, is a euphemism that refers to the ongoing process described in this article (hat tip to cogit and postherd for posting it): http://conflictsforum.org/2009/%E2%80%98businessmen-posing-as-revolutionaries%E2%80%99-general-dayton-and-the-%E2%80%9Cnew-palestinian-breed%E2%80%9D/
Building a Palestinian security force, essentially a kind of military, is the only sense in which a phrase like this could be comprehensible: “the declaration of a Palestinian state would be a mere formality once the institutions [...] are created”.
While it has some potential for good, this is a profoundly scary strategy. Unless Fayyad does plan to turn these troops against the IDF and force them out (not a viable strategy anyway), and given a context of expanding settlements and no (let alone fair) political negotiations, we’re talking about collaboration. A renting-out of the enforcement of occupation. A state-of-the-art American-trained Palestinian Phalange to do Israel’s dirty work far more brutally than Israel ever could.
Given that the history of Fatah administration is filled with the violation of democratic processes, corruption, and the use of torture, can we really expect an essentially collaborationist regime (with the attendant unpopularity that would bring) with a domestically overpowering military arm to be democratic, fair, and respectful of human rights?
There is definitely an American flavor to this process. It looks to me like we’re seeing the emergence of a co-opted leadership in the mold of Diem, the Shah, Batista and Somoza.
If I were a Palestinian in the territories, I would want absolutely no part of this America-Israel proxy Palestinian state. And I would be scared to death of it right now.
This is just so disturbing. It is the replacement of justice with (more) weapons. On either the assumption that Palestinians are inherently and irrationally violent, or simply out of disdain for their pleas for rights.
That is, this has become the essence of the “peace process”.
That should be an offensive term by now. We need a “justice process”.
The Fatah side of the PA has been doing Israel’s dirty work on Hamas ever since Hamas won the parliamentary election. The Fatah response to losing the election was to commit treason against their own people and its democratic process. They immediately began to collaborate with Israel and the US to overturn the results and retake power by force.
What we are witnessing is the United States taking over the British Mandate of that part of Palestine not under direct Israeli rule and not under Hamas rule. Under American tutelage, Fayyad is trying to administer the remaining isles of territory. This seems to be the American plan. Perhaps, the Americans will convince the Israelis to expand the mandate somewhat, and who knows, maybe in ten or twenty years the isles will be considered grown-up and granted some kind of independence.
Actually, we are witnessing the liberation of Palestine from Israeli occupation, and from Hamas fanaticism.
It will transpire, call Netanyahu’s bluff, and result in a viable, coherent, sustainable, Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Hamas fanaticism? Christians have a saying, Witty: take the splinter out of your own eye before you go about trying to remove one from your brother’s.
That’s ironic it sounds like the same ole song and dance only now snagglepuss lebermann. The same thing was promised when Arafat was there and we see how the resaloutions were NEVER enforced by the UN, still to this day there has been more excuses than ever by the aparthied israel. Hammas by the way IS the democratically elected government of Palestine, until the aipac owned administration here in the usa decided different once again and then planed operation “dead lead” and had little aparthied children writing on bombs”this is for the children of Gaza”, ther today as the cspan book clubs project srong outlandish reality of how the “great state of israel ” is so wonderful and how regardless of all that is critizied they do so much good for the world and invention and so on. Sounds like hitlers book has some real sinical oponents in the newest run for why there will only be a state if israel and usa say so. Well all along you should realize you as jews and zionist and evangelicals are being lead to the cliffs like lemmings once again. Everyone will be changing their names agin to hide the backround of jewishness or race which ever one it is supposed to be. Too bad when all is said and done, the institutions which FYI where already in place before and bombed by the aparthied with usa backed ammo will again fall victim as the people have all along. It is not funny but the operation cast lead was actually just one in so many of the crimes against humanity in which “we have the proof of” that will never again be left to rest, ever, until the land is free of the sum that invaded it.
Just because JFK fell victim because of his stand to ensure that the foriegn plague from khazaristan did not go represented in the usa, does not mean 40-50 % of the world will be sucked into the aparthied lie that is called israel, and remember for each thing (so called good” that has been done in inventors more has been done to kill and mame cheat and steal. You should all be ashamed at blogging (for sake of civilization) and humanity , your faith or race (what ever you say it is ) is being maligned so terribly there will never be any good to come from any of it as long as you continue to humor yourselves with blogging about crimes against humanity. The stern gang and others should be held for war crimes with the BS your “so called leaders ” have been passing off as a democracy and will be the downfall just as rome had theirs. Hopefully sooner than later. So tell me do you really want to do nothing but blog about it, or deal with the harsh reality that the rope has run down to the ends practically and you will all be left as it has always been told , racist murderers, whom found ways of infiltrating positions of power to do NO GOOD at all for anyone, not even yourselves.
The following is from a conversation between Fayyad and Lally Weymouth of the Washington Post.
http://americantaskforce.org/daily_news_article/2009/10/26/1256529600_0
Does that mean a central bank, roads?
It means all of that. We now have a monetary authority that is almost like a central bank. We have a public financial system that is well managed. It has won the confidence not only of the Palestinian people but certainly of our donors, including especially the United States.
What are the other institutions?
We are talking about security capability, law and order, including a well-functioning judiciary. Security is not complete unless there is a widespread belief on the part of the public that there is due process. . . .
Additionally, [we need] physical infrastructure to provide services effectively to our people in all areas — social services, health, education. . . . The idea behind this is to ensure that in a couple of years, it will not be difficult for people looking at us from any corner of the universe to conclude that the Palestinians have a state.
I keep telling people, Israel was not created in 1948. Israel was proclaimed as a state in 1948. The institutions of the state were there before 1948.
Hmm…
Salam Fayyad: Palestinian Ben-Gurion, or Palestinian Saddam Hussein?
I guess Palestinians have no choice but to trust him. What bothers me so deeply is that, with the training of this advanced security force, he doesn’t have to make himself accountable to the public if he doesn’t want to. And he’s already in power by coup, essentially.
And, Israeli/American approval will underlie his power. If they want to keep settlements, or impose other unreasonable conditions, what can he do about it? They will take what they want, and he’ll let them, or be killed for any concrete resistance. There is no liberation movement behind this, no way to exert any counter-pressure.
So Palestinians not only have to trust him, but also trust the United States and Israel. Yikes.
We need to build Palestinian power, somehow. BDS seems like the best way to me.
You do know that there are Palestinian elections called for in January?
Unless Hamas disrupts them, which they are likely if they can’t get to participate to their advantage or dominance.
But, every day Fayyad succeeds, it not only is a success for Palestinian nationalism, but a failure for the Hamas and far left brand of “nationalism” constructed by resistance.
Institution-building is planting a tree. Substantive. Undeniable.
If anything is revolutionary, that is it.
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