Eve is here. The „dog bite“ reference to Thomas Friedman, while amusing, highlights an important and revealing chapter in the unfortunate process by which Israel systematically undermines the dignity and quality of life of Palestinians. The headline doesn't really address the issue. Author James Zogby participated in U.S. efforts to build businesses in Gaza to create a viable economy. Israel thwarted them at various times. And some U.S. officials have decided to support Israel's hardline stance.
Dr. James J. Zogby, author of Arab Voices (2010) and director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization for the study of Arab American politics and policy. He is the founder and chairman. community. It was first published in common dreams
last week, new york times Tom Friedman's long article „What's Happening to Our World'' was published. In it, Friedman argues that Hamas could have turned Gaza into Dubai if it had made the right choices in 2005. I don't have a prepared letter against Hamas. Although their suicidal policies are causing terrible suffering to Palestinians, Friedman's arguments that I have heard others make are so fanciful and ahistorical that they must be refuted.
The reasons for the Palestinian Territories' lack of development date back a decade to the fateful 2005 elections that brought Hamas to power. I know because I was on the scene and watched this disaster unfold in real time. Although the Palestinians are not entirely at fault, it would be cruel to blame them for Israel's policy of deliberately strangling the Palestinian economy and the United States' failure to take effective measures to counter it.
From 1993 to 1996, I co-chaired Builders for Peace, a project launched by Vice President Gore to promote U.S. investment in occupied territories. In that capacity, I chaired a session on the Palestinian economy at the 1994 Casablanca Economic Summit and visited the region with Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. And on several occasions, I have led delegations of U.S. business leaders to the West Bank and Gaza to foster business partnerships that promote economic development.
We were motivated by World Bank research that shows that the Palestinian private sector in the territory can be an engine of growth if it has the opportunity to secure investment and trade freely with the outside world. As Vice President Gore pointed out, expanded economic opportunities do not bring peace, but we knew that without these opportunities it would be impossible to achieve peace.
The first delegation visit gave us hope. Prominent American companies were impressed by the Palestinian businessmen they met, and several deals were struck. In the months that followed, Israeli reluctance to allow Palestinians and their U.S. partners to import raw materials or export finished goods without Israeli control or Israeli intermediaries emerged. It became clear. As a result, the deal we had planned fell through.
The problem went deeper. One day, I received a call from an official from the United States Department of Agriculture. There was a shipment of 50,000 flower bulbs that the US tried to bring into Gaza. The bulbs were left alone for so long, waiting for Israeli permission, that they rotted. Israel did not want competition for its flower exports. The USDA had enough money to ship the bulbs again, but didn't want to risk the expense if the outcome was the same.
Frustrated, in 1995 I wrote a long memo to President Clinton. I also testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with many of my BfP colleagues, at length about Israel's obstacles to investment and economic growth in Palestinian lands.
In my letter and testimony, I said that less than two years after the Oslo incident, the situation had become dire. Palestinian support for peace takes a hit as Israel closes off Palestinian lands and establishes internal checkpoints across the West Bank following Baruch Goldstein's massacre of Muslims in a Hebron mosque . Settlements were increasing, as was Palestinian unemployment. In the West Bank, more than a third of the workforce was unemployed, while in Gaza the unemployment rate was a whopping 62%.
Referring specifically to Gaza, I pointed out that:
Despite promises from the international community, not a single job-creating infrastructure project has begun. Open sewage still poses a serious health hazard. Instead of real progress, the Palestinians got observers, studies, pledges, unfulfilled promises, and blame.
All young Palestinians want is to get a job, lead a meaningful life, support their families, and prosper. Their anger is a product of despair, born of fear and frustration that they have no future. For peace to survive, we must use all our resources and capabilities to meet this crisis and show Palestinians that the promise of peace is achievable.
Our request was simple and clear. Allow the Palestinian private sector to secure investment. Israel will be under pressure to allow Palestinian businesses to import and export with the outside world. and that international donor funds be directed to job-creating projects. One of my BfP Jewish colleagues pointed out that the responsibility for making these happen lies with the US and Israel, not with the Palestinians.
Our recommendation to pressure Israel to let go of the reins so the Palestinians can breathe and grow was rejected by the administration's „peace team,“ although President Clinton and senators expressed support. . They argued that any pressure on Israel would hamper negotiation efforts.
All of this happened in the 1990s, not 2005. In the real sense, Hamas did not create this chaos. They inherited and fed off the despair left by Israel's suffocating domination and American neglect and acquiescence. Hamas's response has certainly been terrible, but the reason why Gaza did not become Singapore (which President Yasser Arafat designated at the North Pole), or Dubai, has little to do with Hamas's choice, but rather the fact that the Gaza Strip became Singapore The reason it did not have much to do with Hamas's choices. Peace with the failed Palestinians.