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Time to Rethink International Aid to Palestinians
(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Nathan J. Brown - Current efforts to provide international assistance for Palestinians to build strong, effective governance institutions in areas where the Palestinians exercise autonomy have been losing their ostensible purpose as leaders of the Palestinian national movement are shifting priorities away from domestic institution-building. In the current atmosphere, U.S. moves to curtail assistance to Palestinians spark dismay but little resistance; donors were already quietly asking each other whether their efforts are actually building a more just, peaceful, and stable region. It is difficult to give a positive answer to that question. Assistance itself is not a problem, but the political foundation that current efforts assume to exist has decayed. Rather than simply ignore U.S. efforts to obtain Palestinian and broader Arab acquiescence in current realities, it makes more sense for other international donors to repurpose existing programs. The writer is professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.