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Original Commentaries
Setting the Record Straight
Economic Development No Substitute for Negotiations
“The focus in the latter years of the Bush administration and the first year of the Obama administration on negotiation seems to me to marginalize what should be central and instead [makes] central what is not essential to the building of a Palestinian state. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations can come later.”
—Elliott Abrams, former deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush; senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, interview, “Focus on West Bank, Not Negotiating,” January 13, 2010 
“Look, I’m an economist by training, not someone who would cast any doubts on the importance of economic improvements. Nevertheless, economics is just one leg on which a future Palestine must stand. To think that ‘economic peace’ is going to be a substitute for the political tract—that’s not something I would agree with.”
—Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, interview with Tablet Magazine, December 8, 2009
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