re: #323 SanFranciscoZionist

Financial stability. The thing I encourage people to remember is that, despite many people’s best efforts to turn this into a purely ideological fight, it’s essentially a land and resources conflict.

Egyptian media also has virulent anti-Semitic content, but Egypt has still kept the peace with Israel for forty years. Jordanian and Israeli businesses work together. None of the neighbors have attacked in some time. Israel may not be the most popular kid on the block, but she’s staked out a little area for herself. The Palestinians have been left in the wind in large part because they’re a convenient proxy for a number of people.

Remember when Israel pulled out of Gaza, and Hamas trashed the greenhouses? That wasn’t happenstance. People with successful businesses and a stake in the future are less interested in perpetual war for themselves and their children. If there can be a functioning Palestinian economy in a Palestinian state (I’m thinking of the West Bank, ‘cause I don’t have a clue what to do about Gaza), I think that there will be an increasing resistance to violence.

Creating that would require a lot of restraint and genuine commitment by both Palestinian and Israeli leaders, but it would be very, very worth it. The Palestinians have consistently tried to create functioning businesses and get their kids education through the worst of this. The better the odds for the middle class, the better the odds for conflict resolution.

The thing is that for the to work, the terrorists have to be cut back first. Until they are, they’ll sabotage any effort at economic revival (for exactly the reasons you described).