Joseph sent me this: "The following are some choice quotes from a Joel Brinkley article from July
2011 entitled "Palestinians
Sit Out Arab Spring"
For the first time, Palestinians are making demands of their own leaders instead of blaming all of their woes on Israel. Sure, every Palestinian alive would still like to have his own state, and most probably wish Israel would disappear. But that is no longer the single controlling force in their lives. Israeli officials have not caught up with this.
But a more important reason is that Palestinians now have something to protect. For years now,Fayyad has been working "to get ready for statehood by building competent institutions of a state." A massive building boom has transformed Ramallah into an impressive city. Streets are clean, schools improved, and trained police are on patrol. Economic growth has averaged about 8 percent for the last few years.
Palestinians have jobs and families. That, as much as anything else, may explain why they are not taking to the streets.
As if Palestinians who protested during the 1st and 2nd Intifadas didn't
have jobs and families, and as if there weren't Egyptians and Tunisians
protesting who had jobs and families!"
