Palestinian PM reaches out for grass roots support with message of change

[Behind the Aegis]

When he was named to lead a government reeling from civil war in Gaza, those Palestinians who had even heard of Salam Fayyad mostly saw him as an obscure, expatriate technocrat with little feel for their troubles.

Now, a year after President Mahmoud Abbas made Fayyad prime minister in place of a Hamas leader he accused of staging a coup in the Gaza Strip, the former World Bank and IMF official is reaching out for grass roots support with a message of change.

The U.S.-trained economist, who came to power without a popular base and has clashed with some in Abbas's Fatah faction, cuts a very different figure from Palestinian leaders schooled in guerrilla warfare that has so far failed to deliver a state.

His language, too, tends to differ. He is a vocal critic of Israel's occupation and its approach to the new peace process and he acknowledges the handicaps he faces since Hamas Islamists seized Gaza last June 14, dividing the Palestinian territories.

But he says he wants ordinary people to see past the problems to improve lives and "conquer the sense of defeatism".

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[notfullofit]

1. Sounds promising. nt

[LeftishBrit]

2. Sounds encouraging!

We'll have to see what he actually achieves, but he sounds as though he wants constructive solutions.