Insights

The best immediate solution is construction of a rail link of about 1.5 kilometers between Erez (at the northern border of the Gaza Strip with Israel) and Zikim, which links Gaza to the Israeli rail system.

Gershon Baskin recommends that President Mahmoud Abbas should immediately move his main seat of government to Gaza and that the minister of interior, in charge of the security forces, should also spend most of his time in Gaza.

I don`t pity them, and I don`t identify with them. I did not send them to Gaza

Gershon Baskin shares his insights on how in the real cold analysis of how decisions are made in this part of the world, Israel included; the language of force, pain and suffering is what motivates difficult decision.

A plan for Palestinian elections must be included and should be held shortly after Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is completed. People like Mohammad Dahlan and many others can compete in those elections for the public’s support, but he, nor anyone else should be imposed on the Palestinian people by outside meddlers.

Gershon Baskin asks why did the P2P projects cease to work when they were needed the most? Why did the P2P projects fail to produce the desired goals? How could P2P projects have greater impact?

Abu Mazen recognizes that Gershon Baskin’s work has always stood as an example of the kind of relationship that both the Palestinian and the Israeli people deserve: commitment to dialogue as the means for advancing joint interests and for resolving disputes.

Gershon explains the importance of investing a lot more energy and thought into how to integrate the bottom-up peace making process within their overall strategies.