Pal Leader: Pals Have Lost The Argument

[JStone]

Palestinians Isolated and Short of Funds

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have "lost the argument" on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable.

In an interview with Reuters, Fayyad struck a note of discord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by calling for elections that have long been delayed because of deep political divisions between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

He also warned his administration's future was clouded by severe financial strains and said the Palestinians had failed to galvanize a distracted world behind their cause.

"I think we are losing the argument, if we have not already lost the argument. But that doesn't make our position wrong," said the former World Bank economist, a political independent who has had strong support amongst Western powers.

Arab unrest, the U.S. presidential elections and financial crises in Europe had combined to knock the Palestinian issue off the global agenda more than 18 months after peace talks with Israel broke down in a dispute over Jewish settlement building.

"What is the biggest obstacle we face? The state of marginalization. It is unprecedented," he said. "The Israelis have managed to successfully trivialize our side of the argument," he added, alluding to the Palestinian demands for a halt to settlement building before negotiations can resume.

I do not believe we will be able to get a state unless we are able to reunify our country," he said of the political divide that has split the West Bank from the coastal enclave of Gaza, governed since 2007 by the Islamist group Hamas.

Continued Crying: Palestinians isolated and short of funds: Fayyad - chicagotribune.com