Saturday, February 11, 2017

More Israeli tributes to Salam Fayyad

From Eyal: "Barak Ravid, Haaretz correspondent for international affairs and diplomacy, writes an opinion column (which is the center-top item on the Haaretz website) entitled "Six reasons why Danny Dannon's resistance to the appointment of Salaam Fayaad at the UN is pure folly" and goes on to write, well, many things I won't bother translating, but including the
following passages:

"The concensus regarding Fayaad's abilities, and foremost - his integrity, professionalism and dilligence, had existed in Jerusalem, Washington and the rest of the world already during his term as PA minister of finance and later as the prime minister, during the Bush presidency. Fayaad was then, and remains today, the most prominent Palestinian politician in his commitment to the war on corruption, to institution-building, to the rule of law and to the struggle against terrorism. These are exactly the problems Libya is suffering from. Fayaad is the most capable person to handle them."

"... he played a central role in ending the second Intifadah. The activity of Fayaad, perhaps the most moderate of the Palestinian leaders, was motivated primarily by the Palestinian interest, and a
Ben-Gurionic perception regarding the construction of the state-to-be. For all this Fayaad earned the respect of many senior members of the Israeli security establishment and of the governments of Sharon, Olmert and Netanyahu."

At the more right-wing-Zionist, and more popular, YNet website writes: "The Palestinians regarding the blocking of Fayaad's appointment at the UN: 'Crass discrimination using a pathetic excuse'" - so, nothing in their own voice praising Fayaad. It's as though YNet, or the Israeli mainstream, is closer to Trump's perspective in this respect (or to that of the Republication party) and the Israeli 'liberal' Zionists are closer to the US Democrats / 'liberals'."