(Ha'aretz) Ari Shavit - As head of the coordination and strategy team in the Prime Minister's Office, reserve brigadier general Eival Giladi is to a great extent the father of the separation fence. He is also one of the architects of the disengagement plan. This week he revealed another dimension to his indefatigable creativity: the Portland Trust, a foundation that aims to revive the Palestinian economy in order to strengthen Israeli-Palestinian stability in the post-disengagement era. Standing behind the Portland Trust is the new owner of the Bezeq telephone company, Sir Ronald Cohen, an Egyptian-born Jew who acquired his billions in London. Along with two partners - Sir Harry Solomon and Sir Martin Gilbert - Cohen decided to try to save the region through a project that somewhat recalls Shimon Peres' New Middle East project. It supposes that the Palestinian economy will not be integrated into the Israeli economy. The man who devised the strategy of disengagement from the Palestinians is raising loan guarantees for the Palestinians and pushing for an international project to build 150,000 housing units in Gaza.
2005-06-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive