BBC News reports:
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has rejected its rival Fatah’s nomination of Salam Fayyad as prime minister in a transitional government.
The decision came hours after Fatah agreed to back Mr Fayyad, who currently heads the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank.
Delegates from the two factions are due to meet on Tuesday in Cairo to agree the make-up of the new government.
Fatah and Hamas signed a deal in May ending their four-year split.
Fayyad is in a pretty precarious position. Not only has Hamas rejected him, but he is not exactly adored by Fatah either (already surviving several demands that he be dismissed). Moreover, Fayyadism is based on economic growth and institution building; the economic growth (9.3% in 2010, 7% projected for 2011) in Palestine is hollow, donor-dependent and based nearly entirely in Ramallah; Palestinian institutions have certainly been strengthened, but many Palestinians consider the government in the West Bank to be too compliant to US and Israeli damands (specifically the growing security apparatus).
Fayyad has received the backing of Fatah and, eventually I believe, of Hamas, because he will give the Palestinian government a likable face for the west. Even if is approach is increasingly seen as fundamentally ineffective, the west likes him and in a new government that includes Hamas, a moderate, western educated Prime Minister is important.
http://notesfromamedinah.com/2011/06/10/has-palestine-had-enough-of-fayyad/