Here is a report on Israeli projects, presented at the Summit, on solar heating, anti-desertification, irrigation, water purification, and other problems of the region. Jordan and Israel are working together on a number of these; the Palestinians are throwing yet another hissy fit.
An "infinite number" of joint projects could be carried out with the Palestinian Authority that would benefit both sides. . . . Hanegbi said he had asked a senior U.N. official at the summit to try to arrange a meeting in Johannesburg with Hanegbi´s Palestinian Authority counterpart to renew a dialogue on environmental issues. So far, he said, he had had no success. . . .
"Israel cooperates with its Arab neighbors in several regional development programs and we look forward to deepening the regional cooperation process, but unfortunately the situation with the P.A. has been less encouraging because terrorism causes serious obstacles to the promotion of sustainable development," Yedid said. He also called on the Palestinians to return to the "path of dialogue." The Palestinian responded by saying that Israel´s dialogue is the "dialogue of destruction."
I have said this before in blog comment sections: Jordan is the only Arab state which sincerely cooperates with Israel and has a stake in doing so, because it is trying to Westernize and because it has also has an interest in subduing Palestinian terrorism, which threatened to destabilize its government 30 years ago. So no, even though Jordan has a majority of Palestinians, deporting thousands of rageful terrorist-influenced people to Jordan isn't in the cards (not to mention the atrocities that would inevitably be part of the process of rounding up and forcibly moving them - it ain't worth it).
UPDATE: I'm kinda new at this blog stuff. It took me a while to realize that I could go back to an old post and change it. So I took out the factual error I made (which you can find out about in the comments, if you're really interested).
UPDATE: Excellent comments on the Summit in TNR.
The left had hoped to use the summit as a forum for denouncing growth, resource use, and market economics. But inconveniently, this position was popular only among well-to-do trust-fund leftists of the First World. It turns out that almost all nations in the developing world now desire growth, resource use, and market economics. The only significant exceptions are Cuba and North Korea--two people's paradises, huh? . . . .Amen.
. . . the European Commission, plus several European Union member governments, gave several million dollars in travel grant funds to various left-wing NGOs to send people to Johannesburg. Officially this was for diversity and democracy, but the real motive was to ensure that there would be angry people denouncing the United States in the streets while the summit took place. Just think how many lives might have been saved if the millions used to fly a European street demonstration all the way to the tip of Africa had, instead, simply been given to the poor of Africa.
<< Home