Peace Can Be Bought
Just like so many other things. Here is my new crazy idea. The primary Palestinian objection to The Fence is the economic implications thereof: They're dependent on Israel for their economy. Of course, a pretty good chunk of Israel is dependent on cheap Palestinian labor too, but that's life. There are land issues (farmers' farms being split up), but let's set those issues aside as solvable and part of the "where is the fence" problem, rather than the "should there be a fence problem".
If the US and certain other countries (like Europe) were to agree to set up factories and so forth in the new Palestine, this could jumpstart a new economy. First, it's a cheap way to buy peace. Second, it gives Palestinians jobs; a pretty good chunk of the political resistance is due to the desperation and free time created by a destroyed economy.
It might just be the cheapest way to solve much of the problem. At the end of the day, you'd have two states, relative peace, and a decent Palestinian economic infrastructure. You'd also have the US sitting as the agency that made it happen.
So I wonder...what would it cost to do something like this? Life and materials are cheap in the West Bank...what kinds of industries could be created, with international support?
And Then?
I sure do think simple sometimes. Too simple... :)
on
| § 3
§ 3 Comments
[ You're too late, comments are closed ]
Except that Arafat has had 50
Except that Arafat has had 50 years to build his own factories, and his own industry, and ensure a skilled labor force. The entire Arab world has had the same 5 decades to do the same for the Palestinians, about whom roughly none of them cared before 1947. Israel, actually, has achieved a modern state ex-nihilo, in the same period, which I think is most telling.
Instead of industry and finance, the peace-loving Muslim world made 3 concerted attempts to destroy Israel and has made terrorist attacks against Jews and Palestinian victimhood the lynchpin of not just Palestinian culture, such as it is, but in the broader Arab world: in popular music, education, poetry, and public discourse.
Arafat and his ilk perpetuate death and continue the cycle of poverty and desperation for the ultimate goal of destroying Israel.
I'm not building anything- factory, auto plant, warehouse, port, Boys & Girls Club, etc- in such a place. But "buying peace" sounds like playing into a Palestinian protection racket, such that unless the US gives them $ then they blow up more Jewish children.
I don't think that's what you have in mind, but that's what I preceive.
My guess is that Palestinians
My guess is that Palestinians would be completely happy to stay on their side of the fence if their economy allowed them to do so. You think they _like_ spending hours to get through checkpoints, being shot at, beaten up, threatened, and then viewed with fear and suspicion everywhere they go in Israel? I doubt it.
My point is that if we can create a valid economy in the West Bank, Palestinian objections to the security fence pretty much go away. Everybody wins. Everybody stays apart for a while, and gets to think about things.
The economic aid is tied to fence completion.
Fair enough. No, I agree
Fair enough. No, I agree that noone likes being pushed around, especially when most are trying to make a reasonably honest buck/sheckel/drachma/ what have you.
But why is it up to the US, or Western powers, to create a viable economy for a fledgeling Palestinian state, when that population has had decades to do it themselves, particularly when, as the mainstream press loves to point out, there are over a billion Muslims on this world? They are all bound by faith (umma) to help each other, but Palestinians' brother Arabs have done roughly zero for them since the first clutch of them fled their homes in the nascent Israel to escape the invasions of Arab armies.
THAT's the question that I often ask myself, but can't seem to get meaningful answers from any readily-accessible quarter.