Mideast photo-op, Israeli settlements and West Bank economy

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Parking meters are a sign of progress in the West Bank city of Nablus. A couple of old-timers sitting outside a store near these meters said the things were put in about a year ago. Before that, there wasn’t much enforcement of parking rules or many other laws for that matter. This episode of the American Influence podcast includes a piece I did from Nablus at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, during the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Fitr. I talked with people in the old market of Nablus and tried to capture some of the positive changes happening now with the West Bank economy and security situation, along with the skepticism that many Palestinians have toward the Israeli government’s stated goal of building an “economic peace” in the territory.

The bulk of this episode of the podcast however is an interview I did with Akiva Eldar, columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz and author of the book, Lords of the Land. Eldar was kind enough to put up with me, my digital recorder and my questions at his home in Netanya, Israel. I started off by asking him if saw the recent Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas summit in New York as just a photo-op. Eldar said it might be worse than that. It might have been a real setback.

Thanks for listening folks, and keep the feedback coming. Email me at theworldpolitics at gmail dot com.