Sometimes, educational experiences are unpleasant. Vice President Biden was in Israel this week to cheer his "old friends," declare his joy at being "home" and, oh, by the way, encourage Israel not to build any more settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank. But during his visit the Israelis announced (by cooincidence or the unilateral decision of a faction in the Netanyahu government) that they were going to allow another 1600 new settlement housing units in (East) Jerusalem.
This provoked Joe Biden to rebuke the decision, and his mission more or less ground to a halt right there.
In The Israel Test, George Gilder argues that Jewish settlements have not hurt the Palestinian economy of the West Bank, Gaza or Jerusalem, but have greatly improved it. Before the intifadas of the 90s, Palestinians moved into the areas where Israelis settled and gained greatly from the collateral prosperity. Palestinian per capita income tripled in the period.
Westerners do not understand that the areas under discussion are very small. One can see the settlements in the West Bank, and, of course, East Jerusalem, from a hotel room near the Old City in Jerusalem. It's a metropolitan area we are talking about. It also is part of a metropolitan economy. In a rational world, the Palestinians and Israelis, as a matter of mutual agreement, would integrate their economies to mutual benefit.
Gilder made similar points at presentations he made in Los Angeles this week, even while Joe Biden was fuming in Jerusalem. And tonight, at a Discovery Institute function in Seattle, Michael Medved described his own recent trip to Israel and the amazing, continuing economic boom there--something quite in contrast to the recession besetting Europe and the United States. The high tech economy is the second largest in the world on an absolute basis, and the biggest on a per capita basis. Despite nominal political conflict, the country is remarkably safe these days, with crime rates below those of such American cities as Seattle.
Gilder says that Israel is important not only to peace in the Middle East but to the security of the United States. Israeli companies are crucial to our our defense advances. Therefore, he advised a gathering of the American Freedom Alliance in Santa Monica two nights ago, our government needs to make our resolve about Israel clear, and that failure to do so hurts, rather than encourages, peace.
Someone please tell Joe BIden.
