(New Republic) Joshua Hammer - It's not only Israeli Jews who are enjoying the new boom times. A Palestinian Christian friend of mine, a denizen of the Old City, earns his living as a tourist-bus driver. During the Intifada, he was unemployed for months at a time, and his family scraped by on his wife's meager earnings as a cleaning lady. These days, the man is hardly home, venturing from one Galilee-to-Eilat excursion after another. Both Palestinians and Israelis seem to share a recognition that the status quo is about the best that anyone can hope for now. Nobody believes in the Obama peace initiative. Expectations have been lowered. Still, it would be naive to think that the place isn't capable of exploding.
2010-10-22 09:33:28Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive