Daily Alert Archives

Wolfensohn: "All the Dreams We Had Are Now Gone"

[Ha'aretz] Shahar Smooha - James D. Wolfensohn, 73, an Australian-born American Jew who was president of the World Bank for 10 years, spent 11 months as the Middle East envoy of the Quartet until April 2006. He arrived in the region in May 2005, three months before the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, brimming with good intentions and raised $9 billion to bolster the Palestinian economy. He also donated money of his own to help the Palestinians buy Israeli-owned greenhouses in Gaza. "All the dreams that we had then have now gone, and beyond that you now have an elected Hamas government and a split with Fatah," he said. "I'm not at all sure that Israel can determine what happens in Palestine, the Palestinian territories. There's been no evidence up to now that a decision taken by the Israelis will determine what the Palestinians do." "Over the last four years, the war in Israel and Palestine has cost the international community - including military expenditure - somewhere between $10 and $20 billion. The Iraq war has cost $600 billion. The Afghanistan war has cost between $50 billion and $100 billion....There has to be a moment when Israelis and Palestinians understand that they are a sideshow."
2007-07-20 01:00:00
Full Article