Our 10/14/2009 E-mail Campaign to President Obama

[johnkarls]

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Posted in Sec. 1 of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org under the title of “10/14/2009: MARSHALL-TYPE PLAN FOR PALESTINIANS” --

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President Barack Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Re: American Policy Toward Palestinians = The Key to Middle-East Peace

Thank you very much for all of the tireless efforts being exerted by you and your team!

To assist, I would like to offer a suggestion regarding the Arab-Israeli peace process.

For the last 60 years, the focus has been on "land for peace" - in other words, an attitude toward the Palestinians that "You can have your own country if you stop bothering everyone else."

But that won't solve the real problem which is the economic plight of the Palestinians.

The web site for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency which runs the Palestinian refugee camps, reports that the number of refugees has grown from 750,000 in 1950 to 4.6 million today. The U.N. refugee camps are located in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank and the refugees live in abject poverty.

Indeed, the CIA's web site discloses that 683,484 of the total population for the West Bank and Gaza of 4,013,126 live in the U.N. refugee camps, and that the standard of living of the entire population (including non-refugees) is the equivalent of trying to live in the United States on $2,900/person/year - 6% of the U.S. standard of living and 10% of the Israeli standard of living.

What is necessary is a good education for the Palestinian children and training for the adults so that they can handle jobs that would go with economic development (construction, irrigation, manufacturing, etc.). Following a careful assessment of the comparative strengths that Palestine would possess.

The U.S. began providing Egypt and Israel with $6 billion/year of economic aid when they signed their 1979 Peace Agreement. It would seem a comparable amount would be a small price to pay to provide a real solution to a conflict that has festered for 60 years and, with nuclear arms soon to permeate the area, could soon produce a nuclear holocaust that might lead to "the twilight of the humans"!

Thank you for your consideration.

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