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The Economic War Against the Palestinians Has Failed

Hello! The bleeding obvious from a piece in Forward:

"In recent weeks, the Israeli military shut down a series of West Bank charitable and educational organizations affiliated in one way or another with Hamas, even though the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is apparently incapable of providing these services. Last week, threats by P.A. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad caused Israel to reverse itself in one instance where it had closed an entire shopping mall in Nablus because two or three storeowners had ties to Hamas.

This week, the United Nations reported that after more than a month of cease-fire in and around Gaza, 95% of Gazan industry remained closed, as did many of the Gaza passages through which goods enter and leave the strip. Israeli monetary authorities did, however, graciously accept delivery of more than 16 million shekels worth of worn bills and coins from Hamas monetary authorities in Gaza and replaced them with new bills and coins.

These are just the most recent absurdities in the hapless economic war Israel has been waging with the Palestinians for the past 41 years. Amazingly, Israeli authorities — left and right, military and civilian — still don’t acknowledge that wielding economic carrots and sticks does not substantially affect Palestinian political behavior."

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