After less than two years in office, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced his resignation in light of the new Hamas/Fatah alignment talks that are to begin next week in Cairo.

Mr. Fayyad, who is not a Hamas or Fatah member, was the man whom the American government relied upon for financial accountability and for a future stable Palestinian entity that would not be tainted by the terrorism that has been the legacy of both Hamas and Fatah. Hamas is defined by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and the military forces of the Fatah, known as the al-Aqsa Brigades, are also designated by the American government as a FTO.

Mr. Fayyad assumed office in June 2007 after Hamas staged its takeover in Gaza.

Palestinian Authority President and Fatah Chairman Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Ismail Haniyeh’s Hamas government that had been elected in January 2006 and announced the establishment of a new government, based in Ramallah, under Mr. Fayyad at that time.

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As the man who assumed the role of Palestinian finance minister following the death of PLO founder Yasssir Arafat, Mr. Fayyad had been credited with initiating the first system of financial accountability into the Palestinian Authority, following years of corruption under Arafat leadership.

A mantra of American and Israeli foreign policy over the past two years was that the Palestinian Authority could be trusted because Mr. Fayyad was at the helm. Now that Mr. Fayyad’s accountability and moderation has been removed, Fatah and Hamas have come together in their war against Israel.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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