Fayyad's Herzliya speech: Popular in Israel, panned in Palestine

I haven't been able to find a full text of the speech -- not on PA Web sites, not on the Herzliya Conference site -- so if anyone has a copy, please let me know. From the excerpts I've read, though, the speech sounds like standard Fayyad. He outlined the steps he's taking to build Palestinian institutions, particularly the security forces. He told the audience that improved security in the West Bank means the IDF should stop launching incursions into Palestinian territory.

"In fact, what would create all of this in a context of an occupation to be ended, is for us Palestinians to have formal security presence in other population areas outside of Area A, because nothing - as anyone will tell you - defines a state more than where its own security service[s], not the occupation security services, are," he said.

Fayyad said he's confident his government will deliver a reasonable level of social services by the end of next year. And he urged the Israeli government to stop building new settlements, which he called a potentially destabilizing factor for the state he's trying to build.

"The Palestinian state is supposed to emerge precisely where settlements are expanding," he said. "The political question I have is how confident can we be that once relaunched, the political process is going to be able to deliver that which needs to be delivered on the permanent status issues, on the key question of ending the occupation," Fayyad said.

Again, nothing unusual. He focused on building institutions; he told Israel to stop the occupation, but he framed that as advantageous to Israel. Popular stuff with Israeli and Western audiences. The very fact that he showed up is significant, too: Fayyad has cancelled past appearances at Herzliya, and he seemingly has little to gain from attending this year, given the internal divisions within Israeli politics and the stalled peace process.

"Politically mutinous"... "outrageous"... "collaborator"

At home, though -- and in the Gaza Strip -- Fayyad's Herzliya speech was met with derision. A sampling of reactions:

• Hatem Abdel Qader, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (and a Fatah member), said his entire party was outraged (عربي) at Fayyad's "participation... in a conference organized by the Israeli security establishment."

• Nabil Shaath -- who this week became the first Fatah official to visit the Gaza Strip since August, and the first high-level visitor since 2007 -- was more muted in his criticism, but said he disagreed with Fayyad.

• A spokesman for Hamas slammed Fayyad for "cooperating" with the occupation.

• Mohamed al-Hindi, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, called Fayyad "politically mutinous."

• The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called the speech an offense against the Palestinian people (عربي), because the conference leads to "policies of aggression against our people and our nation."

I could go on, but you probably get the point. The reaction was brutal. And this is Salam Fayyad's fundamental problem: He's popular in the West, but he has considerably less support among Palestinians. Polls generally put his popularity between 25-35 percent -- not terribly unusual for a Palestinian leader (Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Abbas poll in the same range), but a clear sign that he doesn't have a mandate.

Fayyad will keep pressing forward with his rump state in the West Bank, but unless that effort leads to some tangible progress vis-a-vis Israel -- reduced IDF security control, an easing of the Gaza blockade, etc. -- Palestinians, already suspicious of Fayyad's "institutions first" plan, will quickly lose patience.