Shortly after Binyamin Netanyahu's election for a second term as Prime Minister, Joe Klein commenting on an interview with the new Prime Minister wrote:

So, what’s going on here? A smokescreen, I suspect. Netanyahu–who is opposed to a Palestinian state–is trying to draw attention away from illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank, which continue to grow and threaten the possibility of a two-state solution. He is also playing to the minority of American Jews who support neoconservative positions, especially the notion that Iran having a bomb would be somehow different, and more threatening, than Pakistan having a bomb–the idea that Iran is run by mad mullahs, who behave irrationally.

Now he has seemingly found another threat to the two state solution. (h/t Martin Kramer):

I’ve been traveling to the Middle East as a journalist for the past 30 years. During that time, Israel has grown into an ethnically diverse, economically successful country with a strong (internal) tradition of democracy, free speech and the rule of law–a tradition not always extended toward its Palestinian neighbors, especially when Likud governments are in power. And during those same 30 years, governance on the Palestinian side has been an unrelenting disgrace–until recently, when Salam Fayyad, a U.S.-trained economist reformed the government on the West Bank and, with US help, created a tough security force that insisted on the rule of law in the Palestinian territories and was respected by the international community, including the Israelis.
But Fayyad was fired in the new accord between the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. This is terrible news. It changes everything.The success of Fayyad’s government was one reason why I was not entirely pessimistic about a two-state solution in the Middle East. Israel had always demanded, and deserved, a responsible negotiating partner. Fayyad had created conditions amenable to negotiation; the Israelis responded positively, in a limited way, shutting down checkpoints on the West Bank, but not nearly as positively as they should have–with a moratorium on new settlement construction. His firing has undermined those of us who had hoped for a more positive Israeli response to the Palestinian reforms.

Aside from his cheap shot about how Israel treats Palestinians, his praise of Israel as a society is welcome. But he overstates the importance of Fayyad. Fayyad never had a significant base of support. Over the past 30 years (actually more) Palestinian extremism has been praised and encouraged. Even Likud governments did more to promote peace with the Palestinians than "moderate" Fatah politicians – Fayyad included – did to encourage peace with Israel.

It would have been better had Klein not focused on Fayyad and noted that an agreement between Fatah and Hamas effectively rejects the Oslo Accords. Still it is something that he acknowledged the problem.