Kushner's economic plan for Mideast peace faces broad Arab rejection

[webfact]

Kushner's economic plan for Mideast peace faces broad Arab rejection

By Stephen Kalin, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Mohamed Abdellah

 

People walk past a section of the Israeli barrier in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank June 23, 2019. REUTERS/Mussa Issa Qawasma

 

RIYADH/AMMAN/CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab politicians and commentators greeted U.S. President Donald Trump's $50 billion Middle East economic vision with a mixture of derision and exasperation, although some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance.

 

In Israel, Tzachi Hanegbi, a Cabinet member close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described Palestinians' rejection of the "peace to prosperity" plan as tragic.

 

Set to be presented by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at a conference in Bahrain on Tuesday and Wednesday, the blueprint envisions a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighbouring Arab economies and is part of broader efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestininan peace process.

 

"We don't need the Bahrain meeting to build our country, we need peace, and the sequence of (the plan) - economic revival followed by peace is unrealistic and an illusion," Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said on Sunday.

 

The lack of a political solution, which Washington has said would be unveiled later, prompted rejection not only from Palestinians but in Arab countries with which Israel would seek normal relations.

 

From Sudan to Kuwait, commentators and citizens denounced Kushner's proposals in strikingly similar terms: "colossal waste of time," "non-starter," "dead on arrival."

 

Egyptian liberal and leftist parties slammed the conference as an attempt to "consecrate and legitimise" occupation of Arab land and said in a joint statement that any Arab participation would be "beyond the limits of normalisation" with Israel.

 

While the precise outline of the political plan has been shrouded in secrecy, officials briefed on it say Kushner has jettisoned the two-state solution - the long-standing worldwide formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

 

'ANOTHER TRAGEDY'

The Palestinian Authority is boycotting the Bahrain meeting, saying only a political solution will solve the problem. It said Kushner's "abstract promises" were an attempt to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation.

 

The White House has not invited the Israeli government to Bahrain.

 

On Israel Radio, Hanegbi said Washington had tried to create "a little more trust and positivity" by presenting an economic vision but had touched a raw nerve for Palestinians.

 

"They are still convinced that the whole matter of an economic peace is a conspiracy, aimed only at plying them with funds for projects and other goodies only so they will forget their nationalist aspirations. This is of course just paranoia, but it's another tragedy for the Palestinians," he said.

 

U.S.-allied Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will take part in the Bahrain gathering along with officials from Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

 

Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel Jubeir, said anything that improves the Palestinians' situation should be welcomed but that addressing the political process in resolving the conflict with Israel was "extremely important".

 

"The Palestinians are the ones who have the ultimate decision in this, because it's their issue and so whatever the Palestinians accept, I believe everybody else will accept," he said on Sunday in an interview with broadcaster France 24.

 

Lebanon and Iraq will not attend the conference.

 

"Those who think that waving billions of dollars can lure Lebanon, which is under the weight of a suffocating economic crisis, into succumbing or bartering over its principles are mistaken," the parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, said.

 

Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which wields significant influence over the government, previously called the plan "a historic crime" that must be stopped.

 

Thousands of people marched through the Moroccan capital, Rabat, on Sunday to express their solidarity with the Palestinians and their opposition to Kushner's plan.

 

"We came here to speak in one voice as Moroccans and express our rejection of all conspiracies that target the Palestinian cause," Slimane Amrani, vice secretary general of the kingdom's co-ruling Islamist PJD party, told Reuters.

 

Arab analysts believe Kushner's economic plan is an attempt to buy off opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestinian land with a multibillion-dollar bribe to pay off the neighbouring hosts of millions of Palestinian refugees to integrate them.

 

After Israel’s creation in 1948, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon absorbed the most Palestinian refugees, with some estimates that they now account for around 5 million.

 

'NO HARM IN LISTENING'

In recent years, Iran's bitter rivalry with a bloc led by Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has increasingly pushed the Arab-Israeli struggle into the background.

 

While Riyadh and its allies have welcomed Trump's harder line against Tehran, which has cast itself as the guardian of Palestinian rights, critics accuse Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam's holiest places, of abandoning the Palestinians.

 

Muslim scholars in the region, who would have in the past rallied popular opinion in support of the Palestinians, were largely silent hours after the plan was released, in a sign of a crackdown on dissent in several Arab countries.

 

Saudi Arabia has detained several prominent clerics in an apparent move to silence potential opponents of the kingdom's absolute rulers. Egypt's top Sunni Muslim authority, al-Azhar, has yet to issue a statement.

 

Ali Shihabi, who heads the Arabia Foundation, which supports Saudi policies, said the Palestinian Authority was wrong to reject the plan out of hand.

 

"It should accept it and work on delivering the benefits to its people and then move forward aggressively with non-violent work ... to seek political rights," he tweeted.

 

Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor also criticised the Palestinians' refusal to go to Bahrain.

 

"There is no harm in listening to what will be placed on the table," he wrote last month.

 

Yet even in the Gulf, backing for Kushner's plan is limited.

 

"The deal of the century is a ... one-sided concession, the Arab side, while the occupier wins everything: land, peace and Gulf money," said Kuwaiti parliamentarian Osama Al-Shaheen.

 

(Reporting by Stephen Kalin in Riyadh; Mohammed Abdellah, Amina Ismail, Nadine Awadalla and Mahmoud Mourad in Cairo, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; Samia Nakhoul, Tom Perry and Ellen Francis in Beirut, Ghaida Ghantous, Alexander Cornwell, Hadeel Al Sayegh, Sylvia Westall and Aziz El Yaakoubi in Dubai, Eric Knecht in Doha, Michael Georgy in Khartoum, Ahmed Hagagy in Kuwait and Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Samia Nakhoul, Keith Weir, Gareth Jones and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-06-24

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[Tug]

Not surprising they know Donald and company can’t be trusted

[ezzra]

Back in 2002 president Clinton and than Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered yasser arafat 92% of the sized land back to the Palestinian people, Arafat just kept saying NO, it's 100% or nothing.... Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." A formal Palestinian rejection of the proposals reached the Americans the next day. The summit sputtered on for a few days more but to all intents and purposes it was over.

Nothing has changed since then, the Palestinian mule like stubbornness and pride will not allow them to move forward, or, they don't want to, it seems that they're happy living in 'refugees camps' for another 70 years and for the UN and the world to feel sorry and pity and keep pumping more and more billions of euros and dollars at them...

[Matzzon]

36 minutes ago, webfact said:

economic revival followed by peace is unrealistic and an illusion

Of course peace is unrealistic. That, out of the reason they only know how to blow up bombs instead of engaging in fruitful talks that could lead to a positive result.

[Sydebolle]

I am open to all religions, races and opinions - to make that clear.

It takes a special kind of stupid though to send an ultraorthodox jewish boy like the US president's son-in-law into the race dealing with the Arabs. The latter have had it - for understandable reasons - with the "chosen people" living on "promised land". 

Until somebody, preferably neither a jew nor a muslim, tries to kick-start the discussions anew again on a fair and equal basis, there will be simply never a solution. Both, the jews and the arabs in the Middle East, are too similar, and totally brainwashed to no end by religions. Religious discussions (or wars for that matter) are discussions over who has the bigger imaginary friend. 

So, instead of making the best of their earthly existence (lasting +/- 80 years without war) they keep throwing all sort of weaponry against each other - to the benefit of the proxies. The US springs to mind with war mongers like Kissinger before and Bolton now - go figure! 

[dexterm]

Seems an odd way of establishing peace. Money now; political solution later.

 

I am sure Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries are asking...but what are the strings attached to this?

If the deal of the century is so wonderful, why all the secrecy?

 

Why not be up front about what Palestinians are being bribed to accept?

[1duckyboy]

So much for Kushner's checkbook diplomacy. Kissinger was better at it.

[wayned]

Kushner couldn't plan his way out of a wet paper bag!   He scrapped the "two State" solution and Palestine , Lebanon and Iraq are boycotting the meeting.  It's the Palestinians that have to be convinced before anybody else will sign up to a deal.  He doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

[Srikcir]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Kushner's "abstract promises" were an attempt to bribe Palestinians into accepting Israeli occupation

Pretty consistent with Trump's modis operandi in business.

If you can't blackmail someone into submission, bribe them.

Maybe Trump should create a new government agency called The Department of Persuasion, nominate Kushner as the Secretary.

[Pedrogaz]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

Back in 2002 president Clinton and than Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered yasser arafat 92% of the sized land back to the Palestinian people, Arafat just kept saying NO, it's 100% or nothing.... Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." A formal Palestinian rejection of the proposals reached the Americans the next day. The summit sputtered on for a few days more but to all intents and purposes it was over.

Nothing has changed since then, the Palestinian mule like stubbornness and pride will not allow them to move forward, or, they don't want to, it seems that they're happy living in 'refugees camps' for another 70 years and for the UN and the world to feel sorry and pity and keep pumping more and more billions of euros and dollars at them...

Ezra, can you tell me why the Palestinians should not get all their land back.....back tot he 1967 borders, and Syria the Golan heights per the UN mandate? Or is land theft ok in your book? If someone stole 8% of your land, then treated you like dirt, would you be happy he wasn't still beating you up?

 

Furthermore, it was the Arab League Peace Initiative that was presented in 2002 and Clinton was no longer President so could not make any offers to the Palestinians. Read your history.

[Sujo]

13 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Ezra, can you tell me why the Palestinians should not get all their land back.....back tot he 1967 borders, and Syria the Golan heights per the UN mandate? Or is land theft ok in your book? If someone stole 8% of your land, then treated you like dirt, would you be happy he wasn't still beating you up?

 

Furthermore, it was the Arab League Peace Initiative that was presented in 2002 and Clinton was no longer President so could not make any offers to the Palestinians. Read your history.

How dare those pesky palestinians ask israel to stay within its own borders. The real borders as in 1967. 

 

I dont know many countries that have those rubber borders that keep getting bigger.

[dexterm]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

Back in 2002 president Clinton and than Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered yasser arafat 92% of the sized land back to the Palestinian people, Arafat just kept saying NO, it's 100% or nothing.... Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." A formal Palestinian rejection of the proposals reached the Americans the next day. The summit sputtered on for a few days more but to all intents and purposes it was over.

Nothing has changed since then, the Palestinian mule like stubbornness and pride will not allow them to move forward, or, they don't want to, it seems that they're happy living in 'refugees camps' for another 70 years and for the UN and the world to feel sorry and pity and keep pumping more and more billions of euros and dollars at them...

I think you are referring to the Camp David meeting in 2000. 

A link to your quote "Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." would be appreciated. 

 

Similarly if Palestinians haven't got a peace treaty neither has Israel...for an extra 8% of land swaps they could have been living in peace for the last 19 years.

 

Even within the 67 borders Israel gets to keep all the land they took by ethnic cleansing after partition 47-48. The Palestinians have compromised enough.

 

With some members of the current right wing Israeli government ambitious to annex the whole of Palestine, they may end up with 0% Jewish state, as the struggle becomes overt apartheid....we want the land but not the people there having the same rights as Jews.

 

We'll see (maybe one day when he reveals the political side to the deal?) what Kushner is selling for his $billions...half of which will go to Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. Chickenfeed compared with what sort of economy a truly independent Palestine could create. 

[billd766]

5 hours ago, Matzzon said:

Of course peace is unrealistic. That, out of the reason they only know how to blow up bombs instead of engaging in fruitful talks that could lead to a positive result.

Just like the Israelis only seem to know how to use snipers, tanks, field guns and helicopter gunships instead of engaging in fruitful talks that could lead to a positive result.

[billd766]

1 hour ago, wayned said:

Kushner couldn't plan his way out of a wet paper bag!   He scrapped the "two State" solution and Palestine , Lebanon and Iraq are boycotting the meeting.  It's the Palestinians that have to be convinced before anybody else will sign up to a deal.  He doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

But he does have a well know father in law and nepotism does work.

[Emdog]

For those who thought moving US Embassy to Jerusalem was a good idea: there's a reason previous presidents didn't do that, because it confirms US is in Israel's pocket.

Thinking they could buy out Palestinians shows what a New York state of mind culture bound bunch supposedly representing US and peace interests. Clueless. Those folks don't forgive and forget in "God's monkey house" (per PJ O'Rourke), sadly.

[Matzzon]

21 minutes ago, billd766 said:

Just like the Israelis only seem to know how to use snipers, tanks, field guns and helicopter gunships instead of engaging in fruitful talks that could lead to a positive result.

Oh yes! they are fallen from the same tree of madness.

[bendejo]

Gotta wonder what the more bigoted members of DT's base think of his fondness for Israel.

 

His logic about not pursuing justice against Saudi for Kashoggi because it'll ruin a $50 billion arms purchase is an immoral insult to his country.
Again, what does his base think of him sucking up to those villains who raise their gasoline prices and dispatch terrorist missions?  That's the image they carry.  Before the Nixon energy crisis in the early 1970s the general image of Arabs in the US was buffoonish comic characters.

 

Next, send in Don Jr, they might like him better because of the beard.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

It's a plan from an American Jew who has no experience with diplomacy and who has that job only because his wife is the daughter or the president.  

It is not even necessary to look at the plan to know it does not make sense.

[ThaiBunny]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

It's a plan from an American Jew who has no experience with diplomacy and who has that job only because his wife is the daughter or the president.  

It is not even necessary to look at the plan to know it does not make sense.

I didn't realise anti-Semitism was permitted under Forum rules

[stevenl]

4 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

I didn't realise anti-Semitism was permitted under Forum rules

Where is anti-semitism? Kushner is an American Jew, therefor not seen as an independent person by either the Israeli, Palestinians or any other party involved. Simply a statement of fact.

[OneMoreFarang]

25 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

I didn't realise anti-Semitism was permitted under Forum rules

If I would write: A Thai Buddhist won't be able to solve an important Christian problem would you agree?

Same same, not much different.

 

[puipuitom]

8 hours ago, ezzra said:

Back in 2002 president Clinton and than Israeli PM Ehud Barak offered yasser arafat 92% of the sized land back to the Palestinian people, Arafat just kept saying NO, it's 100% or nothing.... Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." A formal Palestinian rejection of the proposals reached the Americans the next day. The summit sputtered on for a few days more but to all intents and purposes it was over.

Nothing has changed since then, the Palestinian mule like stubbornness and pride will not allow them to move forward, or, they don't want to, it seems that they're happy living in 'refugees camps' for another 70 years and for the UN and the world to feel sorry and pity and keep pumping more and more billions of euros and dollars at them…

From 1890 till 1946 Jews tried to buy land in Palestine, often from large land owners in Libanon and Syria. In 1946 they nearly accepted the proposal of king Abdallah or Trans Jordan for a dual kingdom under his reign. In 1947 the Arabs were offered a much bigger past as they got in 1948, in 1056 and 1967 peace was offered, but always: NOT ENOUGH. 

In 1948 and later about 700.000 jews had to leave the Arab countreis, leaving about everything they had. About a 700.000 Arabs registerd themselves as refugees, while nobody asked a proof. How many poor Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians and Egyptions joined these ranks, we are paying a US$ 1,3 BILLION a year for in UNWRA, with as thanks terrorist attacks ? 

No use to negociate with their leaders, as they are totally corrupt, thwith the normal Arab having no real information and free voting / express themselves and above all… nothing to say.

[dexterm]

5 hours ago, puipuitom said:

From 1890 till 1946 Jews tried to buy land in Palestine, often from large land owners in Libanon and Syria. In 1946 they nearly accepted the proposal of king Abdallah or Trans Jordan for a dual kingdom under his reign. In 1947 the Arabs were offered a much bigger past as they got in 1948, in 1056 and 1967 peace was offered, but always: NOT ENOUGH. 

In 1948 and later about 700.000 jews had to leave the Arab countreis, leaving about everything they had. About a 700.000 Arabs registerd themselves as refugees, while nobody asked a proof. How many poor Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians and Egyptions joined these ranks, we are paying a US$ 1,3 BILLION a year for in UNWRA, with as thanks terrorist attacks ? 

No use to negociate with their leaders, as they are totally corrupt, thwith the normal Arab having no real information and free voting / express themselves and above all… nothing to say.

Rather a biased history of the uninvited mainly European colonizers of Palestine straight out of the Zionist mythology playbook, which treats the indigenous Palestinian population as some sort of invisible people who in the 19th C and even today despite all the ethnic cleansing and the waves of Jewish migration still form the majority in Palestine not even counting the Palestinian refugee diaspora elsewhere.

 

Unless Kushner's eventual political solution addresses that fact that Palestinians are the majority it doesn't matter how much $$$ he dangles in their face.

 

The agreed permanent solution must be two states, a confederation with free movement and shared resources, or one state with some sort of binational formula (50:50 Jews/non Jews government) that ensures Israel will always be a haven for genuinely persecuted Jews and also for displaced Palestinians.

The patchwork quilt of bantustans for Palestinians that has been mooted wont cut the mustard.

But we wont know any of that for sure for several months apparently after Kushner has finished his bribery pitch.
 

[Morch]

11 hours ago, Sujo said:

How dare those pesky palestinians ask israel to stay within its own borders. The real borders as in 1967. 

 

I dont know many countries that have those rubber borders that keep getting bigger.

 

There is no generally accepted Palestinian position with regard to said borders. Some will accept the 1967 lines, some would insist on the 1947 version, and some reject any option which got Israel in it. That's as for the first bogus implied assertion.

 

And as for the 1967 lines being the "real borders", not really. they are just the 1949 armistice lines. That by now they are de-facto accepted demonstrated that time is not always kind to territorial ambitions.

 

Israel got agreed upon borders with the two neighbors that signed peace treaties. 

 

I don't know many people who do not realize border agreements got at least two parties involved.

[Morch]

11 hours ago, dexterm said:

I think you are referring to the Camp David meeting in 2000. 

A link to your quote "Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." would be appreciated. 

 

Similarly if Palestinians haven't got a peace treaty neither has Israel...for an extra 8% of land swaps they could have been living in peace for the last 19 years.

 

Even within the 67 borders Israel gets to keep all the land they took by ethnic cleansing after partition 47-48. The Palestinians have compromised enough.

 

With some members of the current right wing Israeli government ambitious to annex the whole of Palestine, they may end up with 0% Jewish state, as the struggle becomes overt apartheid....we want the land but not the people there having the same rights as Jews.

 

We'll see (maybe one day when he reveals the political side to the deal?) what Kushner is selling for his $billions...half of which will go to Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. Chickenfeed compared with what sort of economy a truly independent Palestine could create. 

 

I think the quote is from an interview with the Barak (Israel's Prime Minister at the time). I don't know if there's an actual transcript of this from the summit, but Clinton said similar things (if in a less dramatic tone) over the years, nor was the the quote denied, to the best of my knowledge.

 

Obviously, peace is a two-way street. So going on about the insistence on them 8% cuts both ways as well. Where things aren't the same is that overall, the last 19 years were harsher on the Palestinians. I don't know if there was actually a realistic chance for a workable solution back then, but assuming there was, it would have been better offer then they are getting now, or other versions since then.

 

Your often repeated line about how the Palestinians have "compromised enough" remains meaningless and hollow. Useful as a slogan, perhaps, but doesn't really address anything real.

 

Quote

Chickenfeed compared with what sort of economy a truly independent Palestine could create. 

 

Unadulterated nonsense.

 

[Morch]

11 hours ago, billd766 said:

Just like the Israelis only seem to know how to use snipers, tanks, field guns and helicopter gunships instead of engaging in fruitful talks that could lead to a positive result.

 

Over the years, there have been significantly more ideas, initiatives, offers and plans aimed at solving the conflict originating with Israel and Israelis, compared to their counterparts. That goes toward official channels and others. The so-called "Peace Camp" in Israel, while a minority, is more pronounced relative to the Palestinian side.

[Scott]

Inflammatory, troll post reported and removed.

 

[dexterm]

7 hours ago, Morch said:

 

I think the quote is from an interview with the Barak (Israel's Prime Minister at the time). I don't know if there's an actual transcript of this from the summit, but Clinton said similar things (if in a less dramatic tone) over the years, nor was the the quote denied, to the best of my knowledge.

 

Obviously, peace is a two-way street. So going on about the insistence on them 8% cuts both ways as well. Where things aren't the same is that overall, the last 19 years were harsher on the Palestinians. I don't know if there was actually a realistic chance for a workable solution back then, but assuming there was, it would have been better offer then they are getting now, or other versions since then.

 

Your often repeated line about how the Palestinians have "compromised enough" remains meaningless and hollow. Useful as a slogan, perhaps, but doesn't really address anything real.

 

 

Unadulterated nonsense.

 

Baloney.

 

If Israel has a GDP of $390 billion some of which is generated by one of its largest trading partners..the captive Palestinian market, on which it imposes import and export taxes, then the $25 billion Kushner is trying to buy off the Palestinians then it is indeed chickenfeed, compared with what a truly independent Palestine might generate.

[dexterm]

8 hours ago, Morch said:

 

There is no generally accepted Palestinian position with regard to said borders. Some will accept the 1967 lines, some would insist on the 1947 version, and some reject any option which got Israel in it. That's as for the first bogus implied assertion.

 

And as for the 1967 lines being the "real borders", not really. they are just the 1949 armistice lines. That by now they are de-facto accepted demonstrated that time is not always kind to territorial ambitions.

 

Israel got agreed upon borders with the two neighbors that signed peace treaties. 

 

I don't know many people who do not realize border agreements got at least two parties involved.

You're trying to muddy the waters.
The Palestinians have recognized Israel in the 67 borders for almost 30 years now. Israel is yet to reciprocate.
The 67 borders are the standard benchmark for negotiations in all the peace negotiations so far and in the Arab Peace Initiative, previous US admin and EU negotiations.

 

"How Many Times Must the Palestinians Recognize Israel?
Netanyahu’s new 'Jewish state' mantra negates the fact that Palestinians recognized Israel more than twenty years ago. They’re still waiting for Israel to recognize Palestine."
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.579701
 
Yasser Arafat recognized Israel's right to exist as far back as 1988, and repeated it in writing in 1993 at the Oslo Accords.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/recogn.html

 

For Palestinians to have had their land reduced from 100% to 22% (pre 67) and now Israel wants even more, they have indeed compromised enough already.

[Morch]

40 minutes ago, dexterm said:

Baloney.

 

If Israel has a GDP of $390 billion some of which is generated by one of its largest trading partners..the captive Palestinian market, on which it imposes import and export taxes, then the $25 billion Kushner is trying to buy off the Palestinians then it is indeed chickenfeed, compared with what a truly independent Palestine might generate.

 

You do realize, that even if the Palestinians were to be "truly independent" (the "truly" caveat is dully noted), it would take years for their economy to become viable, right?

 

And that's assuming, of course, one ignores the rampant corruption, the decades old reliance on handouts, the lack of major resources, the state of the education, or relevant national bodies being either useless or dysfunctional.

 

Last but not least, that Palestinian divide - not quite an appealing situation for investment, or prospects of growth there.

 

Your "argument" seems to assume that the economic ties between Israel and the Palestinians could simply be cut off and replaced by others. That's hardly the case. Whether you like it or not, much of the Palestinian GDP relies and will continue to rely on ties with Israel. If ties were to be done away with, the starting point of the Palestinian economy would be even lower.