Word: banking
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...priority and making it more visible to the consumer. This is something they really care about," says Jennifer Tescher, director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a nonprofit that does research and advocacy work for the unbanked. "It doesn't matter whether or not they have a bank charter." And as countless small retailers can tell you, when Wal-Mart decides it cares about a business, it usually finds a way to dominate...
...Palestinians since the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. Abbas has dismissed the Hamas-led government elected in January 2006 and appointed a new Cabinet of technocrats. To avoid a repeat of Fatah's defeat in Gaza, the U.S. moved swiftly to bolster Abbas in the West Bank by lifting an embargo on aid funds for the Palestinians. The new strategy--shared by the Israelis, the Europeans and the Bush Administration--is to flood Abbas' government with cash and attempt to transform the West Bank, while putting Gazans on a diet of limited humanitarian aid in the hope that they...
...victory over Fatah in the January 2006 elections; but as Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser under President Jimmy Carter, says, that U.S.-Israeli policy "put a lot of pressure on the Palestinians in Gaza, which helped to radicalize them without any compensatory relaxation for the Palestinians on the West Bank." The U.S.'s new "West Bank first" strategy aims to correct that shortcoming, but given the Palestinians' defiant mood, the tardy gift could turn into a nasty surprise for Abbas. Robert Malley, a Middle East expert with the International Crisis Group, says that "we've lost so much credibility among...
Will anyone take up the offer? The Bush Administration probably won't consider any contact with Hamas until the Gaza leadership mends ties with Abbas' West Bank government. That may yet happen. Though Hamas was merciless against its foes in the first hours of the Gaza conquest, the group declared an amnesty for Fatah's thousands of fighters, including a dozen senior officials. Even after Abbas kicked Hamas out of his government, the group has been careful not to pick fights with him. The group's political leader, Khaled Mashaal, declared that "Abbas has legitimacy ... he is an elected President...
...that happens, it's not unthinkable that Hamas will emerge as a greater force for stability than Abbas' Fatah. For all the funds and assistance that the U.S. and Europe will shower upon Abbas, there is no guarantee that his Fatah forces can turn the West Bank into a beacon of democracy and prosperity. Israeli intelligence officers say they are worried about the possibility of warfare erupting among Fatah's many, often rival militias. And according to Abdul Sattar Kassem, a political scientist at Nablus' an-Najah National University, West Bankers will turn against Abbas if they see fellow Palestinians...