October 19th, 2010 by Jason

Matt Duss, writing at Foreign Policy’s Middle East Channel, asks if a “focus on security at the expense of democracy does generate bad consequences […] why are we doing it again in Palestine?” As Duss explains, the West’s confidence in Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has become pervasive and possibly dangerous. Fayyad assumed power under a “state of emergency” that Duss says “resembles Egypt’s,” which brings the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) legitimacy into question. Duss also reports that the government is allowing “Salafi prayer leaders” into the West Bank, as long as they “direct their rhetorical fire away from the PA and Abbas’ Fatah Party, and toward Fatah’s political opponents, primarily Hamas.” Duss explains the historical parallels between this current development and the rise of Hamas, while noting that peaceful political activity is being suppressed by the PA: “…activists have now found that any association with a disfavored political orientation is enough to make them targets of repression.” Duss concludes that “Political freedom is not a peripheral concern in Palestine — it is central to the U.S. goal of a functioning, viable, and democratic Palestinian state at peace with Israel. The Obama administration must not allow itself, in the interest of an illusive stability, to keep kicking the can down the road, and oversee the creation of yet another security state in the Middle East.”

Posted in Foreign Aid, Freedom, Hamas, Islamist movements, Palestine, Political Parties, US foreign policy |