How Palestinians Keep Shooting Themselves in the Foot

[Mosby]

As the Arab countries continue to impose strict employment restrictions on Palestinians, Israel is opening its doors to Palestinian workers from the West Bank. Palestinians say, in fact, that Israel is becoming one of the largest employers of Palestinians in the Middle East.

Figures released this week by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in Ramallah showed that at least 80,000 Palestinians were now working in Israel and even in Jewish settlements.

In the first quarter of 2012, according to the bureau, there were only 77,000 Palestinians working in Israel and the settlements. In the second quarter of the ear, the number grew to 80,000; and earlier this week, the Israeli government issued work permits to another 10,000 Palestinians from the West Bank.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3285/palestinian-employment

[shira]

1. Turns out that the return of Arafat in 1993 really doomed Palestinians....

Their economy was getting better each year before he was put into power again. Imagine if that had continued and they accepted their own state along the lines of the Clinton Parameters. If they had chosen peace and cooperation with Israel, they'd be well ahead of the rest of the mideast.

[azurnoir]

2. so you seem to say with the 1993 date that Oslo was really a means for Israel to gain

what appears to be permanent possession of 62% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem thanks we'd have never guessed that

[shira]

3. No. I'm saying that the Palestinians have never had responsible leadership...

...dedicated to genuine peace and cooperation with Israel. If they had that and accepted the Clinton Initiatives, they'd have a prosperous state of their own today.

Are you against that?

[azurnoir]

4. oh you mean if the Palestinians had been good and accepted what Israel was will to give them

at Taba where as I've read Clinton 'whispered' in Arafat's ear that if the talks failed no one would be blamed and then blamed Arafat when they did indeed fail is that what you're going on about? well let's take a look at something

In fact Barak went even further, in a February 8, 2001 statement [8] released by Barak's media advisor he communicated to newly inaugurated President George W. Bush as follows:
“ Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak clarified this evening that the ideas which were brought up in the course of the recent negotiations conducted with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, including those raised at the Camp David Summit and by President Clinton towards the end of his term in office, are not binding on the new government to be formed in Israel. In a letter to President George Bush, Prime Minister Barak stated that his government had done the utmost to bring about an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that these efforts did not bear fruit, primarily because of a lack of sufficient readiness for compromise on the part of the Palestinian leadership...Before sending the letter, Barak spoke with former President Clinton, and they were in agreement that the ideas raised in the past months are not binding on the new government in Israel. Prime Minister Barak intends to convey this position also to the heads of the European Union and to Chairman Arafat.

This page was last modified on 6 July 2012 at 09:04.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taba_Summit

[oberliner]

7. What about the current state of the Palestinians today?

Would you say things have improved or gotten worse since they rejected that offer?

[azurnoir]

10. see comment #9 n/t

[oberliner]

12. That comment in no way responds to the question

It's alright though if you don't want to answer.

[azurnoir]

13. The point is that their acceptance of the offer apparently would have made no difference

or will you also cop to all that means is that it was a limited time offer-should we discuss just how limited that time was?

[oberliner]

14. Let me clarify my question

Would life for the Palestinians today be better, worse, or the same, had the deal been accepted?

[azurnoir]

17. Your question was answered in the preceding comment

I said it would have made no difference

[oberliner]

18. If that's what you believe, fine

I think you couldn't be more wrong, but we can leave it there.

[shira]

8. So in retrospect, it was wise for Arafat to reject w/o giving a counteroffer....

I thought you said you were for peace and 2 states.

[azurnoir]

9. Did you read the excerpt?

the entire thing was a merely a dog and pony show

if Arafat had accepted I'd wager right now we'd be 'debating' why Israel was/was not justified in not keeping the deal

in other words it was an empty meaningless show much like Olmert's 2008 offer

eta Yitzak Rabin the only Israeli PM that may have honestly offered anything to the Palestinians that may have resulted in a viable state was killed because of it Sharon gave up Gaza which on its own is mostly worthless he also is reputed to said that Israel would never allow the Palestinians to develop their natural gas resources off the coast of Gaza, so far Israel has kept his word

[shira]

11. The excerpt simply says the offer is only good for a limited time....

The Israeli cabinet approved it. All Arafat had to do was accept or ask for a few tweaks if he thought it close but not quite good enough.

The fact is Arafat had no intention of making peace with Israel.

As for Rabin, here's his very last speech just days before his assassination:

We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.

And these are the main changes, not all of them, which we envision and want in the permanent solution:

A. First and foremost, united Jerusalem, which will include both Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev -- as the capital of Israel, under Israeli sovereignty, while preserving the rights of the members of the other faiths, Christianity and Islam, to freedom of access and freedom of worship in their holy places, according to the customs of their faiths.

B. The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.

C. Changes which will include the addition of Gush Etzion, Efrat, Beitar and other communities, most of which are in the area east of what was the "Green Line," prior to the Six Day War.

D. The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.


http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/1990_1999/1995/10/PM%20Rabin%20in%20Knesset-%20Ratification%20of%20Interim%20Agree

Barak went much further than Rabin was willing to go.

[azurnoir]

16. very limited seeing as how Ehud Barak then Israeli PM tendered his resignation

shortly before the talks commenced meaning the new government was only a month or so in the future and meaning that the talks were merely a dog and pony show for the masses made by an Israeli PM who was on his way out, hmm kind of like Olmert in 2008

[aranthus]

5. Doesn't this assume that the Palestinians want what the author wants for them?

What if they actually want other things, or at least want them more than they want jobs?

[shira]

15. Self-deception. It's what the International community must believe....

There's simply no way the greater International community will call bullshit on the PA by exposing them for who they really are. Too much effort, time, and $$$ has been devoted to this faux peace process. So Israel must take the blame.

[Mosby]

6. Palestinian Government Debt Hurts Private Sector

Palestinian drug importer Ghassan Mustaklem says he can't afford to work with the West Bank's Palestinian government anymore. He recently halted supplies to his biggest client, which now owes $12 million in unpaid bills, or more than half his annual turnover.

The cutoff by Mustaklem and other suppliers has fueled a shortage of key drugs in Palestinian hospitals, making the health sector the latest victim of a deepening financial crisis for the Palestinian Authority.

The cash crunch, mainly due to a sharp drop in foreign aid since 2011, is threatening to set off a chain reaction of business failures, layoffs and economic downturn that would undermine one of the West's fundamental strategies toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Some warn that the Palestinian Authority, key to negotiating and implementing any future peace deal with Israel, will not survive without a major infusion of cash.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/palestinian-government-debt-hurts-private-sector-17034347