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In-Depth Coverage

Original Commentaries

11/20/08
Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq  —Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
11/13/08
The View from Gaza  —Taghreed El-Khodary, New York Times journalist in Gaza and Harvard University Nieman Fellow (2005-2006). Interviewed by Middle East Bulletin.
11/04/08
Getting on the Right Track  —Dalia Rabin, chairperson, Rabin Center, and daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin. Interview with Middle East Bulletin.

Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Middle East Analysis

Blair’s plan: Peace Through Economy

Ben Kaspit, in Maariv, translated by Middle East Bulletin

Tony Blair is already working. It turns out that during his first visit as the Quartet envoy he started to craft an action plan. In cooperation with Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, he intends to launch a significant Israeli-Palestinian economic project that will “create the difference” between Gaza and the West Bank, and will bring the benefits of peace to the Palestinian economy and society in the West Bank.

The plan was discussed during Blair’s meeting with Olmert. It will launch in a big business conference in the coming months, with 50 leading Israeli businessmen and 50 of their Palestinian counterparts. Blair and Olmert hope to mobilize some of the most prominent Israeli businessmen, like Nochi Dankner, Yitzhak Tshuva and others, to take part in the project. Blair also discussed the plan in his meetings in the Palestinian Authority, including with PM Salam Fayyad, an economist himself and a big believer in “the difference economy can make”.

According to the plan, after the conference the businessmen will move forward to develop joint programs and start joint Israeli-Palestinian factories. The goal is to marry the vision and capabilities of Israeli economy with the cheap workforce in the PA. The plan includes building joint factories in the West Bank, as well as in new joint industrial zones.

The various joint ventures will materialize with the support of both the Israeli and the Palestinian governments, with capital from foreign investors, through reducing tariffs and other incentives. Israel will also help the plan by allowing more freedom of movement between Israel and the west bank and by upgrading the VIP certificates of the Palestinian businessman.

In his meetings in the region, Blair said that such an effort must become beneficial relatively fast, to create a difference between areas that are ruled by terror and violence to areas in which political negotiations are underway. Peace starts with the economy, he said, and both the Israelis and the Palestinians agreed.

Now it remains to see if he will be successful in lifting this project – in a place where many failed before him because of bureaucracy, security constraints and other obstacles.