Economic Peace Before a Political Solution in Israel, Palestine

Following dismayed reactions to Secretary of State John Kerry’s Israel/West Bank visit, both sides debate prioritizing economic peace, writes Adnan Abu Amer.
Abdullah Yaseen, a freelance web programmer, works on his laptop at al-Najah University campus in the West Bank city of Nablus April 8, 2013. Fledgling Palestinian high-tech firms hope they can now help revitalise the economy, making the West Bank more resistant to Israeli controls on land and the movement of goods and people and less dependent on fickle foreign aid flows, which are blighting the public sector. Picture taken April 8, 2013. To match Feature PALESTINIANS-HITECH/ REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (
Abdullah Yaseen, a freelance web programmer, works on his laptop at Al-Najah University campus in the West Bank city of Nablus, April 8, 2013. Fledgling Palestinian high-tech firms hope they can now help revitalize the economy. - REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
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Adnan Abu Amer
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During his recent trip to Ramallah and Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State John Kerry failed to achieve any real breakthroughs in the stagnant negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, despite the satisfaction expressed by the two sides on the round of talks that he had with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, they do not want to cut the remaining, tenuous ties between them. On the other, they are extremely keen not to anger the US administration at the beginning of its second term.

Official silence

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