Salam Fayyad, the extra-constitutional prime minister of the West Bank rump of the Palestinian Authority (PA), has come full circle. The international technocrat was catapulted by US President George W. Bush into the top ranks of the Palestinian leadership, becoming first finance minister in 2002 and then prime minister in June 2007 in a constitutionally dubious sleight of hand after Hamas’ expulsion of Fatah forces in Gaza.

But no matter — together with Mahmoud Abbas, the duo formed America’s Palestine tag team — marginalizing the power of President Yasser Arafat, then suffering an ignominious confinement in the ruins of the Muqata at the hand of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Fayyad in particular offered Americans and Europeans an attractive alternative to the embattled and friendless Arafat. He was an IMF economist, trained in Texas. When Bush looked him in the eye he saw a Texan. Fayyad, together with Abbas, promised to accommodate Bush’s demands for competent governance. They worked with Israel to crush an armed revolt that terrorized Israelis, destabilized Palestinian life throughout the West Bank and made the Gaza Strip ungovernable during the Second Intifada. In return, Washington, so it was hoped, would force Israel to spit out the occupied territories and the state of Palestine would be born.

The bargain has not paid off. Israel and the Obama administration simply pocketed Fayyad’s rehabilitation of the PA ministries, the dismantling of armed opponents of occupation like the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the parallel campaign against Hamas institutions in the West Bank and Gaza. Gaza went its own way after Fatah forces there were routed in June 2007. Peace and quiet became the new normal in the West Bank, fostering new demands for good performance rather than the expected political and territorial payoff. The ties binding the PA to Israel grew tighter. Abbas himself now describes the PA as “an authority without authority” and regularly threatens to dismantle the PA and hand the keys back to Israel.

Just as Arafat was imprisoned in the Muqata, the territorial box within which the PA operates in the West Bank continues to shrink. Israel’s appetite for land and settlement cannot be sated. It grows without reference to the rules of good governance and security cooperation that Fayyad mistakenly saw as a ticket to freedom. Whenever Abbas or Fayyad attempt to push the envelope — contesting Israel's control of Area C, comprising 60% of the West Bank, or going to the UN for recognition — Israel simply gives a tug on the leash.