Another striking paragraph below from Matt Yglesias, who’s clearly not buying the Fayyad magic, observing that he has “no democratic legitimacy.” Yglesias has come a long way since this (the idea of expelling Palestinians) and this (his tweeted desire to have an “I’m Jewish too!” sticker to wear in Israel). He has lately made the case against the hateful sentencing of nonviolent protest leader Abdallah Abu Rahme, pleading with the “Progressive Except Palestine” community to pay attention and stop calling for the (omnipresent) Palestinian Gandhi’s. (Thanks to Rahim for this.)
Inside the Bubble by Matthew Yglesias:
But the Ramallah bubble is truly a bubble. Fayyad’s achievements come either as gifts from Israel (in terms of reduced checkpoints and road closures) or from the U.S. and Europe in the form of money used to underwrite a massive growth in the state apparatus. He has no democratic legitimacy and has no way to deliver sustainable economic gains under the current circumstances of the occupation. Politically aware Palestinians understand what’s happening all too well: More than one described him as a tool of the occupation rather than a leader of the Palestinian people. Nonviolent resistance organizers observed that Fayyad’s strategy is predicated on engaging in essentially no resistance of any form. His economic-development strategy amounts to running a tight ship in terms of personal corruption, plus begging for scraps from Israel and America, which severely constrains his political options in a way that utterly destroys his credibility.
