Can Architecture And Naïveté Point The Way Forward For Palestinians?

Architect Doug Suisman doesn’t really know much about Mideast politics, and doesn’t pretend to know how Israelis and Palestinians can ever be made to live in peace side by side. But Suisman’s idealistic design for a post-war Palestine, commissioned by the Rand Corporation, is raising eyebrows in geopolitical circles for its breadth of vision and pie-in-the-sky hopes for a thoroughly modern state. “Rand, where the analysis is meant to be astringent, not romantic, has now bet heavily on naïveté. It has presented Mr. Suisman’s idea of Palestine to the White House, the European Union, the World Bank and others, as well as to the Palestinians and Israelis. The idea has captured the attention, and imagination, of at least some Palestinian policymakers.”