Word: arabs
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Dubai, the Arab world's glittering, golden embodiment of capitalism, is broke. On Nov. 25, the emirate announced it would postpone payments on some of its $80 billion in debt, sending markets into a tailspin...
While Dubai's origins are largely a mystery, what is now a Rhode Island--size principality on the Persian Gulf was just a pearl-fishing village when its current rulers, the Maktoum family, took over in 1883. Along with those of other Arab emirates, its fortunes changed abruptly in 1966 with the discovery of oil. But compared with its neighbors, Dubai had limited reserves, prompting its rulers to turn to other industries to fuel their bold economic aspirations. Starting in the 1980s, at the prompting of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, then the crown prince, Dubai fashioned itself into...
Thanks to massive spending (and borrowing) by its state-owned development companies, Dubai was soon every inch the global financial center. It's home to the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab, the most expensive hotel in the world, and the unfinished 160-story Burj Dubai, the planet's tallest building. Its coastline has sprouted archipelagoes of man-made islands shaped to represent a date palm and a map of the world...
...decades of negotiation with the Israelis bring them no closer to statehood. A latticework of Israeli security zones and settlements makes nonsense of the territorial integrity of the West Bank, while a ring of Israeli-controlled space is forming around East Jerusalem, without control of which no Palestinian or Arab leader will be able to accept any peace agreement. Not surprisingly, then, Palestinian moderates like Abbas are on the wane, militants are on the rise, and the whispers already talk of a new uprising...
...moment, things are a mess. Earlier this year, U.S. officials requested that the Israelis stop all construction of settlements. Having drawn such a line in the sand, they appeared to blink when the Israelis kicked some of the sand in their face. Nor were the Americans able to get Arab countries to offer enticements to Israel in exchange for further concessions. So peace talks are on hold. (See pictures of Obama overseas...