TOO LATE FOR PALESTINE

It might be an opportune time to go back more than 50 years to 1958 and visit the archives of The Economist - Too Late for Palestine?

"PRESIDENT Nasser, who has a taste for anniversaries, was expected to celebrate one at Gaza last weekend. It is exactly a year since the Israelis left the strip, and prophets had whispered that he might declare a Palestinian republic there. Instead he made only a weak gesture; perhaps he is not sufficiently sure of his strength in the refugee areas not under his control to claim the allegiance of Palestinians everywhere. He gave Gaza a legislative council dominated by Egyptians and Egyptian-appointed members, and an executive council appointed by the Egyptian minister."

Back in the days before the Israelis came along it appears that not enough was being done by the Arab occupying masters of Gaza and the West Bank. Still, the locals weren't sending suicide bombers and missiles into the streets of Cairo and Amman either. Nor did the "occupation" seem to trouble them even if they had no universities, few schools and hospitals and a miserably low standard of living.

Still, it could have been worse if the federation of Iraq and Jordan would have worked, the Palestinians might have become vassals of Saddam Hussein. That would have been really lovely!