. What concerns me is that it not become an excuse to say that the extreme misery of Palestinians does not matter and that improving their lives will do nothing to stop terrorism
Certainly being miserable with no other options is one factor. It is clearly not a sufficient factor, or the world's greatest source of terror would be sub-Saharan Africa. It's not even a necessary factor, as we see from OBL and others. But it's a contributing factor.
As such, it's fair to ask who caused it? Since Oslo started, Arafat got $15 billion in aid for develoment (yes, that billion with a "b"), and what happened to it?
Mostly it went to guns and Swiss bank accounts. Arafat never wanted to stop the terror, so a violent semi-chaos with misery all around suited him just fine. In fact, it was the condition he created all his life wherever he went, first in Jordan, then in Lebanon, then in the territories. And of course the war Arafat started destroyed the Pal economy. So far, the absolute economic highpoint for the Pals was in 1993, Arafat had managed to cut Pal GDP in half by 2000, then he destroyed what was left in the Terror War.
That's why Arafat was an obstacle to peace. If Abbas actually wants prosperity for the Palestinians, it would be a great change. |
