by Daniel Doron

About the author: Daniel Doron is the president of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress, a private think tank in Jerusalem.

The latest mission impossible embraced by those who would resolve the Middle East conflict is the effort to “democratize” the Palestinian Authority, an organization that has thrived on repression, violence, and aggressive irredentism. Meanwhile, a far more promising route to peace—the path of economic cooperation and development—is being neglected or given mere lip service. It’s as if the only form of economic life possible for Palestinians, [is] the one that has prevailed in the last ten years—the provision of foreign billions to huge bureaucracies that squandered or stole much of it, while lawlessness and corruption suppressed...