Strategic Assessment

The Fayyad program “Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State” is the first significant Palestinian attempt at state building, and it reflects the attempt, independent of political negotiations, to construct a state from the bottom up in a way that meets the requirements of the international community and Israel. In tandem, Mahmoud Abbas has worked to advance the establishment of a Palestinian state on the political level, particularly through the announced plan to ask the UN to recognize the Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This essay reviews the Palestinian bottom up state building process and the top down political efforts, and analyzes the challenges the Palestinians and Israel are likely to face in the coming months.