(Wall Street Journal) Tom Gross - President Obama's first year in office turned out to be one of the most encouraging for Israelis and Palestinians in over 15 years. There was less violence than there had been for years, with 2009 being the first year in a long time without any successful suicide bombings against Israel. In addition, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have finally started to behave like a security force rather than like a terrorist group. Then there was the strong economic growth in both Israel and the Palestinian territories relative to most of the rest of the world. What has been happening on the ground in the past year - brought about by both Israeli and PA leaders effectively ignoring Mr. Obama and the other so-called "peace processers" - is that the Palestinian government in Ramallah, with quiet assistance from Israel, is finally doing some state-building instead of engaging in endless hollow "processing" involving talks about talks with foreign leaders.
2010-01-28 08:27:45Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive