Even $4 Billion Can't Buy Love Or Peace
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s approach: “Everything we don't grab will go to them."
The multibillion-dollar development plan for the West Bank unveiled by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Jordan this weekend is the first practical manifestation of the renewed US interest in promoting a diplomatic plan to end Israel's occupation and establish a Palestinian state.
Yet while no doubt well-intentioned, there is no indication that this latest injection of enthusiasm to improve the declining lot of Palestinians, who have been ruled for almost half a century by Israel, will fare any better than its failed predecessors, or indeed that there is any reason to think that it even should.
During the darkest days of the second intifada, I interviewed a wanted member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AMB) in the Balatta refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus. As gunshots echoed in the background, I asked him why he joined up.
“No one else is protecting the villagers from the settlers,” he explained.
