hout Israeli intervention. * Safe passage between the two parts of the PA will, over time, enable the free flow of work, capital and initiative. * Industrial zones -- the first at the Karni crossing -- will promote Palestinian high- tech, which is just starting out. Investors may come. * A port at Gaza, though not economically viable, will give a feeling of independence and remove the economic stranglehold that the Palestinians complain about. Construction work on the port will provide employment for many Palestinians. * A presidential visit by Bill Clinton in Gaza will be an important signal to the American business community to invest with the Palestinians; the president usually brings plenty of businessmen to such shows of friendship. * The United States will supply the Palestinian Authority with additional economic aid, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Although the PA has succeeded in improving its budgetary performance, establishing institutions for economic self-management and passing appropriate legislation and regulations, the international aid funds are being depleted. The Gulf states, hit by the fall in oil prices, have ceased giving aid. American funds, therefore, are vital. * Direct and indirect unemployment has fallen in the autonomous areas over the past year, and Palestinian GNP has accordingly risen. Palestinian workers have returned to Israel, alongside new employment opportunities in the Palestinian areas. Donor countries have transferred huge sums of money to infrastructure projects, in cooperation with the business community and under World Bank supervision. The most important and ambitious of these is "Project Bethlehem 2000," a $330 million investment to develop tourist facilities in advance of the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' birth. There would have been no chance of realizing the project without an agreement on the second redeployment. And what do we gain from it? A lot. Positive economic development in ...
