GOLDEN ARC:

Five million in five years (Sever Plocker, 5/03/05, Ynet News)

Last week, the [Rand Corporation] published a complete study on the options of establishing and founding a Palestinian state.

According to the report, the cost of a durable Palestinian state that sustains reasonable living standards is more than USD 70 billion, to be spent over the course of the next 15 years.

The sources of the 15-year budget, according to the report, must be the U.S., but also the European Union and oil-rich countries.

Additional conditions specified in the report include the creation of a territorial chain in the West Bank Rand calls "The Arc" and a land connection with the Gaza Strip, the establishment of a central government able to disarm the various terror groups, law enforcement and the creation of “crossable borders” between Israel and Palestine to guarantee the free flow of goods, people and services. [...]

In the long run, the demographic sections of the research demonstrate an expected decrease in the growth rate of the Palestinian population, going down from 4 percent to 2.2%; but this would only happen in about a quarter of a century.

In the meantime, there is no way in which Israel can rule over 5 million people, determine their fates, occupy their borders and deny them civil rights - regardless of the number of Jews predicted to populate Israel by the end of the decade.

Accordingly, occupation is not a likely scenario.

It always comes down to demographics...

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 13, 2005 1:39 PM