Soccer Dad

Where Would You Find A Palestinian Technocrat, Anyway?

It sounds like the US is on the move again, considering setting up a Palestinian government that will make peace possible:

The Bush administration is in favor of the establishment of a "government of technocrats" in the Palestinian Authority in place of the current Hamas government, a senior American official told Israeli reporters Tuesday.

Wikipedia defines a technocracy as

a government or organizational system where decision makers are usually highly skilled in fields of management or any other field. A technocratic government therefore is a government by experts.

Putting aside the Palestinian 'Brain Drain', if there indeed are Palestinians who are highly skilled and capable of leadership--where have they been hiding till now, and how are they going to be enticed to join a government that has no record of success?

Then again, it's not as if the new government would be required to do much.

He said the U.S. is concerned about the lack of a Palestinian partner for peace talks with Israel, and expects a new Palestinian government to accept the conditions set by the Quartet (the United Nations, U.S., Russia and the European Union)- renouncing violence, recognizing the right of Israel to exist and upholding existing agreements.

Based on past experience, all that would be required is to accept the conditions: renouncing violence, recognizing Israel, and upholding existing agreements--it's not as if anyone will insist they actually fulfill the conditions.

After all, that's Israel's job, as in allowing the US to arm Abbas' men and allowing the Badr Brigade--former members of the PLO (Haaretz helpfully refers to them as PLO activists)--to enter Israel from Jordan.

The official said the U.S. was fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself, but that a military strategy was not sufficient and had to be accompanied by a diplomatic component.

Diplomacy, when applied to Israel, does not mean negotiations; it means concessions--especially when the US has a particular goal in mind.

[The official] added that it was a waste to invest time in setting up a new government that would not accept these principles.

Apparently the US is ready to dirty its hands and get more actively involved in the Palestinian election process--not just be satisfied with a 'democratic' election. But with Democratic gains in the US elections, 2 years left in the Bush administration, and the American preoccupation with Iran and any number of other hot spots, the goal in the Palestinian territories is unlikely to be anything ambitious--just a recycling of the previous Abbas administration, and more demands for confidence-building measures from Israel.

In the end, it won't be anything we haven't seen before.

Update: For an idea of what to expect from the White House and new Congress, see Israel Matzav's post Bad For The Jews.

Daled Amos

Technorati Tag: Israel and Abbas and US and Palestinians

Posted by daledamos at November 8, 2006 2:11 AM