Thomas Friedman is 100% Wrong About Salam Fayyad

In his column praising President Obama as being "100 percent right to call out Israel on its settlement expansion", Thomas Friedman positively gushes about Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad:

Fayyad is the most interesting new force on the Arab political stage. A former World Bank economist, he is pursuing the exact opposite strategy from Yasir Arafat. Arafat espoused a blend of violence and politics; his plan was to first gain international recognition for a Palestinian state and then build its institutions. Fayyad calls for the opposite — for a nonviolent struggle, for building noncorrupt transparent institutions and effective police and paramilitary units, which even the Israeli Army says are doing a good job; and then, once they are all up and running, declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank by 2011.

If Fayyad is so much in favor of nonviolent struggle why was it only last month that Fayyad personally paid his condolences to the family of Faiz Faraj who was killed by the IDF after he attempted to stab an Israeli soldier? It is also worth noting that the Palestinian Authority's state run newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida gave Faraj the honorific of Shahdid. This means that in the eyes of Muslims, Faraj has attained martyrdom.

Let's see what else Fayyad has been up to in recent weeks. Fayyad has encouraged violent protest against Israel's security fence as well as against Israel's decision to designate Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs as heritage sites. For good measure, he has called for an international boycott of Israeli goods.

Caroline Glick of The Jerusalem Post has described Fayyad as "a fiscally sound terror financier and sponsor, actively waging war against Israel."

Besides I am not sure how Palestinians are going to adopt nonviolent struggle so long as the Palestinian Authority honors the likes of Dalal Mughrabi, the woman responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack on Israeli soil. For more on Mughrabi and the Obama Administration's indifference to her glorification by the Palestinian Authority check out my latest article on the IC main site.

Suffice it to say, I believe Thomas Friedman to be 100% wrong about Salam Fayyad.