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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread
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To: michael97123 who wrote (5589)6/12/2003 9:23:05 PM
From: Hawkmoon  Read Replies (1) of 15991
 
I am dealing with facts on the ground as they exist now vis a vis 1967. Israel cannot control the bulk of the West Bank without doing terrible things.

I concur to an extent.. but I prefer to call it the "current reality". Our "realities" can always change, just as we've seen the reality between blacks and whites has changed over the past 40 years.

But I disagree that the Israelis would do "terrible things" were they to annex the West Bank and Gaza... Believe it or not, the lot of the average Palestinian living in the territories prior to the 1st intifada was far better under the Israelis than it was under Jordanian control.

Sure, they lacked their own government or state, and they were in political limbo, but their economic lot was better.

Heck, the average GDP for a Palestinian living on the West Bank and Gaza in 1999 was around $2,000:

polisci.com

And what would be their average GDP per capita were they still a part of Jordan?:

dos.gov.jo

1999 ($1177.02) and it would be even less when you added in the extra 3 million people in those territories (even with the added economic output).

So yeah.. the Palestinians don't have it as good as the Israelis. But they have (or at least HAD) it better than the brethren living under Hashemite rule (which they don't seem to mind).

And only the good lord knows what their GDP would be today had they not listened to Arafat and launched off on this tirade of intifadas and economic self-destruction.

The bottom line is that, even with a Palestinian state in place, 50% or more of their jobs will still come from Israel and Israeli related commerce. So this delusion that Arafat has fed them that they will be economically "independent" is BS.

And that's just a damn shame...IMO.

Hawk
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