Think Again: Palestine
President Obama got the leaders of Israel and Palestine to shake hands this week. But a meeting in Midtown does not a Palestinian deal make. Here’s why.
The idea of "economic peace" suggests an economic conflict, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is certainly not that. Although economic issues do figure into Palestinian concerns, they are not nearly as important as addressing the rights of Palestinian refugees, terminating Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, and establishing a viable, independent, and sovereign Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. To suggest that economics are ... Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Foreign Policy, Tom Friedman
Dismissing the economics of the area as potential leverage even though the politics of the region is alarming dismisses the reality that the Palestinian plight is also one of poverty and doesn't quite mesh with the realities and last few decades of a developing global economy. Khouri might have been more skillful if he considered the value of a concentric economic plan instead of dismissing it as folly. Palestinians need more visible and overt global support and nothing says 'I love you' more than key economic stakeholders.