Tough…
As their government withers without international aid, Palestinians are tailoring modest lives to desperate times. Bartering, borrowing and doing without, thousands of people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are improvising their way through a deepening financial crisis with help from native sons, virtual strangers and each other.Government salaries directly or indirectly sustain roughly 1 million people in the occupied territories, and in places such as this one the money serves as the economic lifeblood of the community. Town officials say a majority of the village’s roughly 2,000 people rely on Palestinian Authority salaries as their chief source of income.
the washington post
The short term answer, of course, is for Hamas to down arms, recognize Israel and get on with governing. Which will not happen for a while.
Longer tern you have to ask what sort of country the PA would become when one million of its citizens are directly dependent upon the government - such as it is - for their living. The comparison to the vibrant Israeli economy could not be more stark.
At some point, and I hope it is soon, the Palis are going to have to get past the victim mentality which has been their lot for the last fifty years and get on with making their way in the world. And the best partners and possibly friends they have will be the Israelis. The Arab world is interested in the Palestinians as a cause; but it is incapable of actually helping them except as a matter of welfare.
The Troll of Ramallah’s legacy lives on.
Written by jay on May 12th, 2006 with
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