If the West does not want to turn the West Bank into another Gaza, it should review its foreign aid policies. [1] As the great economic journalist Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993) once wrote: "Government-to-government foreign aid promotes statism, centralized planning, socialism, dependence, pauperization, inefficiency, and waste. The beautiful residential areas in Ramallah were built not by foreign aid money but by American-Palestinians, who decided to personally invest in the area. As Nobel laureate in economics Angus Deaton noted: "Large inflows of foreign aid change local politics for the worse and undercut the institutions needed to foster long-run growth. "It is by attracting foreign private investment that the great industrial nations of the world were once helped.

Source: New York Times December 20, 2023 14:17 UTC