Who Believes Palestinians' Economic Progress Will Help Bring Peace?

MK Binyamin Netanyahu said it, right? And he's been taking flak for it ever since.

But he wasn't the first to say it.

George Mitchell said it a year ago, in an interview in November 2007. Yes, it was President Obama's envoy to the Middle East who declared:

"Political and security measures can’t succeed in any sustainable way unless a very high priority is also given to economic issues.... economic improvement ... has to be front and center, an integral daily part of the process or else the process can’t gain the necessary support of the people in the societies that are engaged in conflict.... I believe, in every conflict situation people need physical security, they need political freedom, they need personal dignity. In the end what people need most of all are jobs. Economic growth, job creation, to give people opportunity, hope, create a sense of meaningful participation in society."

And here's what Netanyahu said in November 2008 to a Knesset committee, according to Ha'aretz:

Israel intends "to advance peace talks with the Palestinians, in order to gain a stable, safe, and prosperous peace." The Likud leader also vowed that Israel will "continue diplomatic negotiations and we will advance the 'economic peace' whose goal is to bring the rapid development of the Palestinian economy and to prepare public opinion for a real agreement. The economic peace is not an alternative for peace talks but will help guide a winning process. We have seen this in the world, quickened economic development has helped form the conditions for peace and the resolution of conflict," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu was strongly criticized for his economic plan.

In an article entitled, "The Emptiness of Netanyahu's 'Economic Peace' Plan," Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher wrote, "Economic benefits for Palestinians are as intrinsically good for them as for any people, but they, like economic punishments, offer remarkably little substantive input to the peace process."

Fadle Naqib, the acting director of MAS, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, claimed that Netanyahu's plan was racist and bound to fail. "If you improve the economic situation this will not solve the problem," Naqib told the bitterlemons.org website. "As a matter of fact, this is an idea we've heard many times before. We've heard it from Israel and we've heard it from other governments and international bodies. It contains an element of racism. It says basically that the non-white people, the third world people, the Muslim people and the colored people do not behave according to principles, they behave according to instincts and if you feed them they will do whatever you want them to do. ... I have not seen any situation where the economy has solved a political problem."

What do the Palestinians and Netanyahu's critics in Israel have to say to George Mitchell's economic prescription?

Sphere: Related Content