Former President Barack Obama said a way forward for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only possible if people acknowledge the “complexity” of the situation.
“If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And … that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable,” Obama said in an interview on the podcast “Pod Save America.”
The former president’s comments come as the Israeli military focuses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City and northern parts of the enclave.
So make a place a global trade hub in theory can be as simple as saying it is so and watching every country trade there, only in one’s imagination.
So now the region is going to be made into a great Singapore for the Mediterranean using billions of dollars of tax money from nations including Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, etc?
That’s not a global trade hub. That’s a globally subsidized tax haven. Whose long-term stability Congress from the whim of nations like the USA, China, Russia, the EU, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc…
With that, it would be infinitely easier and more attractive for any nearby nation to create a special economic area to handle regional trade & take the jobs, and the best part? This would be funded by the respective nation itself.
The way you describe it is a tax haven. Make it not so.
Literally the only way that would not be the case is if the area was self-governing (maybe with UN headquarters there, but still self-governing) with a heavy business focus, very secure and fair (to both sides) business legislation, relatively lax currency controls and a long-held track record of stability and property rights. And of course extensive networks to move goods and services for some.
Like, Tel Aviv with a fuck ton of effort may be able to do this.
Not whatever UN controlled oppresive hellscape you’re trying to create. To do that, you’d have to sink billions of dollars to first occupy the area then stabilize it enough that businesses even look then give incentives for them to settle there.