There have been quite a few articles flying around lately on the future of  Palestinian politics. Thomas Friedman recently praised Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s work in the West Bank, while Nathan Brown poured cold water on international enthusiasm for Fayyadism and Michele Dunne reminded everyone how bad America’s record of picking Palestinian leaders is.

The Norway-based Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies recently published the 2010 edition of its annual survey of Palestinians opinions. Fafo’s data provides some interesting fodder for the ongoing debate on Palestinian reconciliation, the Gaza tunnels and a host of other topics.

Over the next couple of days, I will unpack some of Fafo’s findings. Today, we’ll look at who Palestinians really trust.  The short answer is no one. The longer answer:

When asked to report their level of confidence in a variety of institutions and leaders, the majority of Palestinians surveyed reported having only “A little” or “none at all” for every Palestinian entity listed in the survey. This includes Abbas, Fayyad, Haniyeh and their respective governments, the security services in both the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian Legislative Council, and Islamic charities. The numbers are even lower when you look at the 40% of the respondents who report that they don't plan to participate in upcoming elections or don’t have a party preference.

The sole organization that received a vote of confidence from a majority of Palestinian was the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which received particularly strong numbers in the Gaza Strip (42% of Gazans report “A great deal” of confidence and 35% report “Quite a lot”) where many Palestinians rely on the UNRWA for income.

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This confidence vacuum is particularly problematic for those working to reconcile the two Palestinian factions. Without a viable leader or respected institutions, reconciliation becomes an international endeavor (for more on how that works out, read Michele Dunne’s article above). It’s clear that many Palestinians have basically checked out of the political scene as it is configured today.

When we divide the data by region, interestingly enough very few differences emerge. In the West Bank, 40% of respondents indicated either “A great deal” or “Quite a lot” of confidence in Abbas and his government while in Gaza the number was slightly higher (44%). The question about confidence in the Fayyad produced similar results (44% in the West Bank and 40% in Gaza). Even on Hamas, the two regions aren’t too far apart (21% in the West Bank and 30% in Gaza).

Comparing this year's data to last year's provides some evidence to support Friedman's claim that Fayyad is beginning to gain the trust of Palestinians. In 2009, only 28% of Palestinians reported having “A great deal” or “Quite a lot” of confidence in Fayyad. In addition, as Friedman reports, confidence in the security forces in the West Bank is up compared to 2009. That said, the numbers still aren't exactly inspiring: 61% of West Bank respondents reported have only a little or no confidence at all in the security services.

Now the question everyone's been waiting for: What about Hamas? The Haniyeh government lost the confidence of many respondents in the West Bank (in 2009, 36% of West Bank residents surveyed reported they had “A great deal” or “Quite a lot” of confidence in Hamas, in 2010, only 21%) and in Gaza (40% in 2009, 30% in 2010) over the past year.

Tomorrow we’ll look at Palestinian views on tunnels, tunneling and the economy in Gaza and in the meantime you can check out the rest of Faso’s data here.