Word: gaza
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...former World Bank chief James Wolfensohn's appointment by the international community to help lay the economic foundations of Palestinian statehood was an expression of optimism in the prospects for peace following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza last year, then his resignation last Sunday should sound an alarm. Trained as a banker rather than a diplomat, former World Bank chief Wolfensohn didn't mince words about his reasons for stepping down. He said the current U.S.-Israeli financial blockade of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority looks set to destroy the administrative institutions on which a two-state solution would...
...security chiefs are also aware that there is no credible alternative - President Abbas is a spent force, and taking down the Hamas government means, effectively, destroying the Palestinian Authority itself. The resulting vacuum would force Israel to resume administrative control of an increasingly violent and chaotic West Bank and Gaza, territories over which Israel continues to maintain sovereign control. And that would wreck Olmert's plans to unilaterally redraw boundaries between Israel and the Palestinians on terms most favorable to Israel. Better to allow Palestinian infighting that will likely destroy any chance of creating a coherent Palestinian response to Olmert...
...turned out to be the easy part: so far, instead of implementing its own agenda, the new ruling party has been scrambling to respond to the consequences of victory, particularly a freeze in funding to the Palestinian government by the U.S., the E.U. and some of its members. Throughout Gaza last week, the difficulties of actually governing Palestinians could be seen everywhere. Forlorn workers from the Palestinian Economic and Development Authority, which operates greenhouses abandoned by Israeli settlers in central Gaza, had to dump hundreds of tons of cherry tomatoes in nearby scrub bush. The crops were meant...
...goats were happy, but the people feeding them were forlorn as they dumped loads of unsellable cherry tomatoes in the scrub of central Gaza. Hundreds of tons of the vegetable used to be exported from the area, but last week the Palestinian Economic and Development Authority, which operates greenhouses abandoned by Israeli settlers, could only trash much of the crop. Since Hamas' electoral victory in the Palestinian territories, Israel has, in effect, blocked commerce by virtually sealing the borders, citing continued attacks by Palestinian militants. The closings also prevent almost all imports. Now anxious U.N. workers in Gaza City fret...
...Minister Ismail Haniya lashed out at Israel and the West last Tuesday for trying "to force our people to kneel down." But his administration is searching for ways out of the crisis, which might mean making conciliatory gestures toward Israel. According to Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Hamas as an organization will not recognize Israel and would seek only an "interim solution" to the current impasse, but spokesmen for the government, as well as some Palestinian officials, have suggested that almost all options could be on the table--including, perhaps, recognition in some roundabout form--if Israel...