The Economics of Disengagement

This proposal would enable Israel to disengage from the Palestinians without creating a Palestinian state that is the economic equivalent of Haiti. The essential idea is to augment Gaza by approximately 4,000 square kilometers by adding part of the Negev desert that is essentially uninhabited and to transfer 500 million cubic meters of desalinated water and water from the Mountain Aquifer to the Palestinians. This would make it possible to develop an industrial and service economy in Palestine that could support four million people and allow Palestinian refugees to return to an economically viable Palestinian State. Extending Gaza so that it is economically viable and able to support a Palestinian population would permit a two-stage implementation of the Road Map to Peace. The first stage would turn the governance of this territory over to the Palestinian Authority and give it the opportunity to create the necessary institutions while the Gordian knot of Israeli settlements in the West Bank was being disentangled. In the second stage, at the conclusion of the peace negotiations, the Palestinian Authority would take control of those portions of the West Bank that will become part of the Palestinian State but are not already under its control