Bear Stearns verdict: E-mails lose cred

1

Goldman CEO says he does 'God's work'

2

Ft. Hood killer: Pre-traumatic stress disorder

3

What up, White House?

4

Down-to-a-Trickle Economics: Cash Flow in the Gaza Strip

By Ward Harkavy in Featured, Israel, Obama Drama, War
Tuesday, Sep. 22 2009 @ 2:17PM
gaza strip building500.jpg
Photo: Sameh Habeeb

Liquidity in the Middle East generally refers to something red, not green. But in the Gaza Strip, there's not much of either these days. Jews and Arabs are accidentally in some sort of detente at this exact second, so not a lot of blood is flowing.

The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, is almost permanently cut off from the flow of money, according to Sami Abu Shamalia's "Cash Flow in the Gaza Strip," on opendemocracy.net.

The banking system, with its seven hours' worth of reserves, is for all practical purposes defunct. There's no production, no exports, a deliberate shortage of currency enforced by the Israeli blockade of just about everything that people need to exist.

Instead of redevelopment in the aftermath of the Gaza War, the Strip is experiencing what the Guardian (U.K.) quotes a U.N. report as calling "de-development."

It's so bad that even the ever-cautious World Bank has called on Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinians' movements in and out of Gaza and the West Bank.

For an overview of the entire Arab/Jew death dance, and Barack Obama's stepped-up foray into the contest to try to untrack the intractable sides, see Shmuel Rosner's " 'Yes We Can' Meets 'No We Won't,' " in which he assesses the prexy's attempts:

Obama--and now that we know him better, it is less of a surprise--was reaching for the stars and reaped no more than a handful of air. "Yes we can" ran into "no we won't." Israel will not freeze settlements, Palestinians will not soften their demands, and Arabs will not lend a hand. And, by the way, Iran will not halt its nuclear program, Russia will not vote for stronger sanctions, Lebanon will not have a Hezbollah-free government, and Syria will not arrest terrorists crossing into Iraq. Not until they have better reasons to do what Obama wants them to do.

Meanwhile, the Arab League continues to protest that Israel is waging "financial war" on Gaza, despite what Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu says about making "financial peace" with the Palestinians. (Not that Netanyahu agrees with the U.N. about the severity of the Gaza Strip's financial problems. He wants the world to condemn the latest U.N. human-right report on the Strip.)

It's still overall such a fucked-up situation that Bradley Burston allows in a recent Haaretz piece that the current lull in terroristic violence is somewhat disconcerting and poses a real problem for Israeli pols:

So reliant has Israel become on terrorism as the underpinning of its policies, it remains to be seen if its reflex dependency on Palestinian violence can be replaced by a world view appropriate to a Holy Land uncontaminated by terrorism.